2009 Sustainability Report

2009
SUSTAINABILITY
REPORT
ROOTED IN TRADITION, GROWING RESPONSIBLY
Contents
1.0

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

Sustainability at Tyson Foods

A Proud Heritage
Tyson Foods Sustainability
Mission Statement
A Message from our President
and CEO
A Message from our Chief
Environmental, Health, and
Safety Officer
The Foundation of Our Company
- Our Core Values
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.3
Tyson Foods at a Glance

Our Customers and Consumers
A Diversified Business Model
Our Operations
3.0 People
3.1 Ethics
3.2 Recognizing an Exceptional Workforce
3.3 Ensuring the Health and Safety of Our

Team Members
3.4 Hunger Relief
3.5 Charitable Giving
4.0
4.1

4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8
Planet
Our Environmental, Health, and
Safety Policy
Our Environmental Team
Environmental Management System
Auditing Our Performance
Data Collection and Assurance
Managing Our Environmental Footprint
Environmental Fines and Penalties
Awards and Recognitions
5.0
5.1
5.2

5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
Products
Managing Food Safety and Quality
Supporting Our Customers and
Consumers
Product Research and Development
Promoting Nutrition and Health
Responsible Marketing and Advertising
Animal Well-Being
6.0 Profits
6.1 Corporate Governance and

Compliance
6.2 Company Strategy and Financial

Performance
6.3 Our Supply Partners
6.4 Supporting the Family Farmer
6.5 Renewable Products
6.6 Building a Multinational Enterprise
6.7 Public Policy and Political

Contributions
6.8 Ethanol and Animal Feed
7.0 Our Approach to Sustainability

Reporting
7.1 Material Issues
7.2 Growing Successful Partnerships

Stakeholder Engagement
7.3 Restatements and Changes in

Reporting
7.4 Data Integrity
8.0 Global Reporting Initiative Index
8.1 Acknowledgements
8.2 Contacts
2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 2
1.0 Sustainability at Tyson Foods A Proud Heritage

As we enter our 75th year of business, we
find ourselves thinking back to 1935 when our
founder, John W. Tyson, began hauling chickens
from Springdale, Arkansas, to poultry markets
in Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. In the
spring of 1936, John delivered his first load of
500 Arkansas-grown chickens to Chicago and
netted a profit of $235. Within a year, John was
hauling loads of Arkansas chickens to new
markets in Cincinnati, Detroit, Cleveland,
Memphis, and Houston. Although no one
realized it at the time, John was laying the
foundation for the modern day poultry business
and Tyson Foods.
Today, Tyson Foods is one of the worlds largest
processors and marketers of chicken, beef,
and pork food products. As our company

has grown, so have our responsibilities. We
understand our actions and decisions have
an impact. We recognize the global community
we serve faces unparalleled economic,
environmental, and social issues, such as
increased unemployment rates, resource
scarcity, and extreme hunger and poverty.
Understanding and addressing these issues is
consistent with the Core Values of our company.
Accordingly, we define sustainability in a way

that brings responsibility and accountability
into every business activity and process. Our
Core Values and focus on sustainability guide
our actions on important issues such as hunger
relief, food safety, environmental protection and
resource conservation, animal well-being,
ethical business practices, the health and
safety of our Team Members, and returning a
profit to our shareholders.
We believe our triple-bottom-line success,

including social progress, environmental
excellence, and economic growth, will continue
as we strive to do the right thing with respect to
people, planet, and profit. Sustainability touches
every aspect of our company and our operations.
We are committed to building the worlds most

extraordinary food company, and to conducting
business in a manner that builds financial
success, respects the environment, and
supports those in need.
1.1 Tyson Foods Sustainability

Mission Statement
Tyson Foods, Inc., recognizes the importance of being a responsible
corporate citizen. Our Core Values which define who we are, what
we do, and how we do it are the foundation of corporate sustainability
at Tyson. We are committed to making our company sustainable
economically, environmentally, and socially. Our progress in this
endeavor will be measured by how we develop and market our products,
how we care for the animals, land, and environment entrusted to us, and
how we treat people, including our Team Members, consumers, suppliers,
and the communities in which we live and operate.
John Tyson
Chairman, Tyson Foods, Inc.
1.2 A Message from our President and CEO

Its our time is a familiar phrase around the halls of Tyson Foods
recently. We are excited about our great team, the future of our company,
and the opportunities we have not only to feed the world, but to leave
this world a better place than we found it because we adhere to sustainable
business practices. Its our time because we have the best people,
customers, assets, brands, and core values to guide us on our journey.
The business case for sustainable practices is positive, bottom-line
impact. Improving conditions for our people, planet, and profit makes
economic sense. That bottom line argument is even more important in
this tough economy especially for our Team Members and shareholders.
As our sustainability practices evolve, we know we must focus on whats
right for our business. We care deeply about issues such as hunger relief,
food safety, animal well-being, the health and safety of our Team Members,
environmental protection, resource conservation, and returning profits to
our shareholders. Accordingly, we have set the following four sustainability
goals to measure our progress:
Reduce our water usage by 10 percent over a two-year period as
compared to our water usage levels at the end of fiscal year 2008;
Produce up to 75 million gallons of bio-fuel a year from animal fat
within the next four years;
Donate millions of pounds of protein annually to Feeding America
food banks across the country; and
Support government policies that will not overuse food, such as corn
for renewable fuel, and encourage efforts to find non-food sources of
renewable energy.
We will keep our sustainability efforts focused, measured, and supportive
of our business. We look forward to working with our customers, suppliers,
and others on common-ground sustainability efforts. Not every effort
works well for every company, but by carefully selecting opportunities
for collaboration, we can share ideas and leverage resources toward
impressive achievements.
Some of our recent sustainability successes include:

Dynamic Fuels, a joint venture between Tyson Foods and Syntroleum
Corporation, broke ground in October 2008 on a plant that will convert
low grade, inedible fats and greases into renewable transportation
fuels for the civilian and military markets. The facility, located in
Geismer, Louisiana, is currently scheduled to begin production in
2010, with an expected total capacity of 75 million gallons per year
of renewable diesel fuel.
In July 2008, we began pursuing our Global Food Safety Initiative
(GFSI) certification. The GFSI is a partnership between food safety
experts from retailer, manufacturer, and foodservice companies that
focuses on the continual improvement of food safety management
systems. As of September 2009, 67 of Tyson Foods U.S.-based
facilities have been certified against the British Retail Consortium
Global Standard for Food Safety.
We are committed to the safety and health of our Team Members.
During fiscal year 2009, the company reduced its Total Recordable
Incident Rate by 19.2 percent and its Days Away, Restricted, and
Transfer Rate by 20.7 percent. In addition, we improved our internal
safety metric score by 14.1 percent during fiscal year 2009.
Another aspect of our ongoing commitment to the health and safety
of our Team Members is ergonomics. On November 24, 2009, Tyson
Foods and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union completed
the 20th year of a workplace ergonomics program that is making
meat processing jobs safer and has helped reduce worker injuries
and illnesses such as strains and sprains.
I know Tyson Foods Team Members will provide the energy, ideas, and
leadership to continue our successful sustainability efforts. Were proud
of the work we have done and the opportunities ahead, as we continue
to learn and progress as a company.
Donnie Smith
President and Chief Executive Officer
Tyson Foods, Inc.
1.3 A Message from our Chief Environmental, Health, and Safety Officer
Our companys Core Values are the framework
of our sustainability practices, which are
focused on people, planet, and profit. In other
words, sustainability at Tyson Foods is about
doing the right thing in all aspects of our
business.
Striving everyday to provide a safe work
environment for our Team Members and to
serve as stewards of the environment are
integral components to how we plan our days,
do our work, check our performance, and
continually improve. We are often asked if there
are benefits to sustainability. The short answer
is yes. The benefits range from feeling good
about our company to the creation of innovative
products and measured improvements.
We are proud to present our third sustainability
report, which provides details about our business
and how we go about making a sustainable
difference for the future. As we have planned
and acted upon our sustainability journey, key
topics such as human safety, hunger, water
resources, climate change, renewable fuels,
safe food production, animal welfare, recycling,
and the disposal of discarded materials continue
to be a part of our success and hold our attention
toward continual improvement.
There are benefits for companies that choose
to follow a path toward sustainability. Here are
a few key highlights on safety and environmental
efforts.
Health & Safety

One of our Core Values is striving to provide a
safe work environment for our Team Members.
We do this by making sure safety is everyones
job, every day. Over the past four years our Total
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) Recordable (TOR) and Day Away
Restricted and Transfer (DART) injury and
illness rates have trended downward. During
FY 2009 we experienced a 19.2 percent reduction
in TOR and 20.7 percent reduction in DART.
Unfortunately, while we have achieved numerical
improvements, we also experienced the workrelated deaths of two Team Members during
2008-2009. These unfortunate incidents are
felt by our entire organization and serve as a
constant reminder of why nothing should stand
in the way performing our work safely.
Listening to our people is one of the single
most important aspects of safety success.
Consistent, repetitive safety communication
and training are also vital. Monthly safety
review calls are held in each of our business
units and involve multiple levels of management,
including a span of Team Members from plant
supervisors to executive managers. Our facilities
have safety committees made up of hourly and
managerial Team Members who meet regularly
to communicate, discuss performance, perform
root-cause analysis of specific incidents, and
develop preventive actions to drive continual
improvement.
We work collaboratively with OSHA in response

to complaints and inspections. During FY 2009
we received 23 complaints and 28 inspections.
In addition, we received 63 citations (26 of
which were withdrawn), seven of which have
been settled, and 30 of which remain under
negotiation. We endeavor to work with the
regulatory community in a positive, open
manner with the interest of our peoples safety
as top priority.
One facet of sustainability is the ongoing
investment in the care and longevity of our
Team Members. For over two decades, Tyson
has employed ergonomics to help create a
user-friendly work environment. Committing
to work smarter and deploy methods to make
tasks more efficient and easier to accomplish
(ergonomics) has many benefits.
Take for instance, the following three examples.
First, we ask people to do their jobs right the
first time, every time. When work is easier to
accomplish, people can hit their mark. Proper
ergonomic design of work helps people do
quality work, rather than challenging them.
Second, we ask people to work hard a good
days work for a good days pay. When work is
easier, people can accomplish more. Improvements
in productivity, inside the company and out,
arise from better methods and technology that
makes work easier. This, too, is part of the
equation of ergonomics. Third, we desire
productive and quality work not only today, but

tomorrow, next week, and next year. Making
work easier helps prevent injuries and illnesses,
such as strains/sprains or musculoskeletal
disorders (MSDs).
Ergonomics involves fitting work to our people,
rather than making people try to fit work that
may not be optimally designed or well-suited
to them. To make this concept a reality, Tyson
uses a formal structured approach to ergonomics,
including (1) management commitment of
resources; (2) extensive training conducted at
many levels in the organization; (3) jobs are
systematically reviewed with structured checklists and a variety of analysis tools; (4) risks that
may be identified are driven to root cause; and
(5) teams of stakeholders the same folks
who get the training mentioned above work
together to brainstorm, design, and implement
solutions. This can range from improved tools
and fixtures, to better techniques or methods,
to clearer instructions making worker easier
for the body and mind.
If someone is hurt on the job, Tyson Foods
has a very capable medical management team
that works to identify and treat issues early,
before they become serious. Treatment is
monitored and dynamically managed to return
Team Members to work as quickly as possible
(sometimes immediately in an altered role).
Some recent ergonomic success stories have
included:
Tyson Fresh Meats (formerly known as IBP,
inc.) and the United Food and Commercial
Workers (UFCW) union completed last year
the 20th year of a workplace ergonomics
program that is making meat processing
jobs safer. Some of the key elements of
the program include ongoing ergonomics

training for production workers; the involvement
of hourly workers as ergonomic monitors;
work-site analysis and the redesign of work
stations and equipment; and a medical
management program focused on early
detection and treatment of workplace
injuries and illnesses. The success of this
program has been the dedication and
feedback from workers who serve as safety
and ergonomics monitors. The teamwork
between hourly production workers, plant
managers, and corporate management
teams has been very important to the
ongoing success of the program.
Technology for quantifying knife sharpness
has reduced injury (90 percent reduction
in first injury reports at our Temperanceville,
Virginia, facility) and provided objective
feedback that allows us to take control of
our sharpening process (knives now more
than twice as sharp at Obion County).
Ergonomics design criteria for manual
debone lines in poultry processing plants
have resulted in injury and illness rates that
are 20-percent lower than previous generation
equipment installations.
Enhanced trailer specifications and
concentrated material handling training for
drivers has resulted in a $300,000 savings
in workers compensation costs for the
Texas Route Sales Delivery organization
(zero injuries to date through the 11th month
of the fiscal year.).
Ergonomics in the Poultry Industry: A
Review of 25 Years of Industry Efforts is a
recent poultry industry study conducted by
the Joint Industry Safety and Health Council
(made up of members of the U.S. Poultry

and Egg Association, National Chicken
Council, and National Turkey Federation).
The study reports the industrys efforts
in the prevention and early treatment of
musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). It also
discusses how OSHA has focused attention
on the poultry industry and the positive
results achieved from OSHA and the industry
working together. MSDs in the poultry
industry have declined 75 percent during
the last 25 years.
Environmental, Health and Safety
Management System (EHSMS)
At the end of 2008, we finished implementing
Environmental, Health and Safety Management
Systems (EHSMS) at all of our operating facilities
in the U.S. and Mexico. This system meets the
requirements of the International Organization
for Standardization (ISO) continual improvement
process for environmental management known
as ISO 14001. We complemented this by
incorporating the principles of the Occupational
Health and Safety Assessment standard known
as OHSAS 18001 to support our integrated
management approach for the environmental,
health, and safety disciplines. Management
system audits are scheduled to begin during
2010 to monitor and continually improve
performance.
Environmental Stewardship
While we discuss solutions to global concerns
like water conservation and climate change,
we have chosen to concentrate our efforts
in these areas on how we conduct business.
For example, our annual water usage for the
production of food products in FY 2009 was
25.5 billion gallons. At the end of 2010, we will
evaluate water usage and conservation progress
against the 10-percent reduction goal set in

2008. Based upon the results, a new goal will
be developed considering a number of factors,
including finding a balance for the expectations
of regulatory authorities for food safety and
environmental protection.
Our water conservation efforts, along with
several facility closures, led to a water usage
reduction of 7.6 percent between October 2004
and September 2009. This is equivalent to a
13.9 percent reduction in the number of gallons
used per pound of finished product.
We operate 34 full treatment and 42 pretreatment
wastewater systems and monitor our compliance
against permit requirements. It is our goal to
prevent potential permit exceedances and
notices of violation through the use of predictive
analytical indicators to monitor compliance
and identify positive or negative trends. When
trends indicate the potential for non-conformance,
remedial actions are taken to return to normal
operation. We measured an increase in permit
exceedances between fiscal years 2008 and
2009 following three years of a declining trend.
Appropriate corrective actions were taken to
determine the root causes, identify preventive
actions, and return to full compliance. We also
measured an increase in Notices of Violation
(NOVs) during this same period and took
similar actions to mitigate the causal factors
and find preventive actions for successful
future operation.
Climate Change
Our climate change efforts have included: (1)
becoming a partner in the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (USEPA) Climate LeadersTM
program in 2004 (The program is a voluntary
partnership challenging businesses to reduce
their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions);

(2) completion of a comprehensive carbon
footprint inventory for domestic operations;
(3) public disclosure of our carbon footprint
since our baseline year of 2004; (4) operation
of covered anaerobic wastewater lagoons at
six of our food processing facilities, four of
which have biogas systems using the methane
generated as boiler fuel; (5) creating and trading
carbon off-set credits in the voluntary carbon
market; (6) preparation for compliance with EPAs
mandatory GHG reporting rule, with the first
report due in 2011; and (7) becoming an EPA
SmartWay Partner as both a shipper and carrier.
During 2010, we have begun a more deliberate
effort in the measurement of energy usage and
setting goals for our business units to improve
their energy consumption budgets. Our initial
focus has been low-cost and no-cost
improvements, and capturing energy footprint
data for use in longer term evaluations of energy
equipment and future capital expenditure
possibilities to lower energy cost and
consumption.
The companys GHG footprint during calendar
year 2004 (defined as our baseline year) was
5.35 million metric tons. This baseline inventory
included data related to facility fuel and electricity
usage, transportation fuels, refrigeration usage,
and anaerobic biogas production. Based on
this inventory, the company is considering
setting GHG emission-reduction goals during
fiscal year 2010. In light of the current uncertainty
surrounding the legislative and regulatory
initiatives dealing with climate change, however,
Tyson Foods may choose to delay its decision
on goal setting in order to better understand
the future legal landscape and role of carbon
in the economy. The company is committed to
making appropriate reductions and investing in

energy-efficient projects to improve bottom-line
performance.
Sustainability is truly about everything we do

at Tyson Foods. Routine interaction with our
customers, neighbors, Team Members, friends,
and other stakeholders enables us to hear
and consider many points of view and allows
collaboration on common-ground sustainability
efforts to make our business stronger.
Kevin Igli
Kevin Igli
Chief Environmental, Health, and Safety Officer
Tyson Foods, Inc.
1.4 The Foundation of Our Company - Our Core Values

Tyson Foods vision is to be the worlds first
choice for protein solutions, while maximizing
shareholder value. Our Core Values are
fundamental to our company. They shape
and direct our strategy and inspire us daily.
They are integral to the way we do business.
Our Core Values guide our relationships with
our Team Members, customers and consumers,
suppliers, and independent producers. Our
goals, programs, and metrics are derived
from and support our Core Values.
Tyson Foods Core Values
We are a company of people engaged in the
production of food, seeking to pursue truth
and integrity, and committed to creating value
for our shareholders, our customers, and our
people in the process.
Who we are:
We strive to be a company of diverse
people working together to produce food.
We strive to be honorable people.
We strive to be a faith-friendly company.
What we do:
We feed our families, the nation, and the
world with trusted food products.
How we do it:
We strive to earn consistent and satisfactory
profits for our shareholders and to invest in
our people, products, and processes.
We strive to operate with integrity and trust
in all we do.
We strive to honor God and be respectful of
each other, our customers, and other stakeholders.
We serve as stewards of the animals, land,

and environment entrusted to us.
We strive to provide a safe work environment
for our Team Members.
2.0 Tyson Foods at a Glance

Tyson Foods originated in 1935 when founder
John W. Tyson started hauling chickens from
Springdale to markets in Kansas City and
St. Louis. He later expanded his business by
producing and selling baby chicks and feed to
farmers, and in October 1947, he established
Tyson Feed and Hatchery, Inc. The company
entered the chicken processing business in
1958 after building its first plant in Springdale,
Arkansas.
Don Tyson assumed the leadership of the

company in 1967, after his father died in
an automobile-train accident. Under Dons
leadership, the companys poultry business
grew rapidly through a series of acquisitions,
including the purchase of such companies as
Holly Farms and Hudson Foods. These strategic
acquisitions made the company, which was
renamed Tyson Foods, Inc., in 1972, the
nations leading poultry company.
The company changed its name to Tysons

Foods, Inc., in 1963, the same year it had
its first public offering of common stock and
acquired Garrett Poultry, a poultry processing
plant, feed mill, and hatchery in Rogers,
Arkansas.
Dons son, John H. Tyson, became chairman

of the board in 1998 and chief executive officer
in 2000. Under his leadership, the company
initiated another major acquisition in 2001,
when Tyson Foods bought IBP, inc., the worlds
largest supplier of beef and pork.
In 2007, Tyson Foods entered into a joint

venture with Cactus Feeders, Inc., and
Cresud S.A.C.I.F.yA to create the first vertically
integrated beef operation in Argentina and
announced the creation of Dynamic Fuels LLC,
a 50-50 joint venture with Syntroleum Corporation
to produce synthetic fuels made from by-product
fats, greases, and oils to target the renewable
diesel markets. In 2008, Tyson Foods entered
the poultry business in South America by acquiring
three chicken companies in southern Brazil.
Today, Tyson Foods [NYSE: TSN] with
headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas, is one
of the worlds largest processors and marketers
of chicken, beef, and pork; the second-largest
food production company in the Fortune 500; and a member of the S&P
500. The company produces a wide variety of protein-based and prepared
food products and is the recognized market leader in the retail and
foodservice markets it serves. Tyson provides products and services to
customers throughout the United States and more than 90 countries. The
company has approximately 117,000 Team Members employed at more
than 400 facilities and offices in the United States and around the world.
In fiscal year 2009, Tyson Foods represented 20 percent of U.S. chicken
production, 22 percent of U.S. beef production, and 18 percent of U.S.
pork production. In fiscal 2009, the companys average weekly production
included 41.4 million chickens, approximately 139,400 cattle, and
393,300 hogs. The company generated total sales of approximately
$26.7 billion in fiscal 2009. This includes $3.4 billion in international sales.
Through its Core Values, Code of Conduct, and Team Member Bill of
Rights, Tyson Foods strives to operate with integrity and trust and is
committed to creating value for its shareholders, customers, and Team
Members. The company also strives to be faith-friendly, provide a safe
work environment, and serve as stewards of the animals, land, and
environment entrusted to it.
Tyson Foods vision is to be the worlds first choice for protein solutions
while maximizing shareholder value, living our Core Values, and fostering
a fun place to work. The companys mission is to produce and market
trusted, quality food products that fit todays changing lifestyles and to
attract, reward, and retain the best people in the food industry.
Want To Know More?
You can learn more about Tyson Foods, its history, and its operations
in the Tyson Fact Book, which is available by clicking on
http://ir.tyson.com.
Learn more about our major shareholders in our proxy statement
available through our Investor Relations Web site at
http://ir.tyson.com.
If you are interested in Tyson Foods financial performance, we
invite you to review our 2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K available
through our Investor Relations Web site at http://ir.tyson.com.
2.1 Our Customers and Consumers

We are dedicated to developing a best-in-class, value-added product portfolio that meets the needs of our customers and consumers. We are well
positioned to provide the products people want, from the most basic cuts of meat to fully-prepared meals. Moreover, we are the only company selling
chicken, beef, and pork through all major distribution channels including consumer products, foodservice, and international.
Consumer Products
Foodservice
International
The Tyson brand is one of the most recognized

brands in the United States retail channel,
including all major grocery chains, wholesale
club stores, super centers, regional chains,
dollar stores, convenience stores, and drugstore
chains. We sell hundreds of different products
in this channel including, but not limited to,
case-ready fresh chicken, beef, and pork;
individually quick frozen chicken; chicken
nuggets, strips and patties; bacon; and deli
meats. In addition to the Tyson brand, we have
several other strong brands for bacon and deli
meats businesses including Wright Brand,
Corn King, Russer, and Wilson brands.
We also manufacture products for our leading
customers in-house and private-label brands.
Tyson Foods is the leading protein provider to

all major national restaurant chains, including
quick service, casual, mid-scale, and fine
dining. We also supply the leading broad line
distributors and on-site foodservice venues,
including hospitals, school cafeterias, and
military commissaries. In addition to being a
primary supplier for foodservice chicken, we
are the leading supplier of pizza crusts, pepperoni,
sausage, and beef toppings to national pizza
chains and retail frozen pizza manufacturers.
We are also a leader in soups, sauces, and side
dishes, and we are the second largest tortilla
manufacturer in the U.S.
In addition to commodity exports, we have

branded international products developed for
the tastes and lifestyles of the local consumers.
The company made several acquisitions and
joint ventures in key locations that offer the
right climate for poultry production, a large
population, ample labor force, access to corn
and soybean meal, and a cost-of-production
advantage. These markets also feature a strong
emerging middle class. As their incomes rise,
one of the first lifestyle changes people make is
to add protein to their diets.
2.2 A Diversified Business Model

Tyson Foods business model is diversified across the three leading proteins
(chicken, beef, and pork), major distribution channels, product types, and
geographies of production. This diversification helps mitigate changes in
market fundamentals affecting segment performance in each protein. We
operate four main business segments, including chicken, beef, pork, and
prepared foods.
Chicken
Tyson Foods poultry business is vertically
integrated. Vertical integration allows the
company to oversee every aspect of production
and product quality from the egg to the finished
product on a consumers plate. In short, there
are seven stages involved in getting chicken to
the consumer, including breeder flock, pullet
farm, breeder house, hatchery, broiler farm,
processing and further processing, and
distribution.
The process begins with the grandparent
breeder flocks. The breeder flocks are raised
to maturity in grandparent growing and laying
farms where fertile eggs are produced. Pullets
hatch from the fertile eggs and are then sent
to breeder houses. The pullets produce fertile
eggs that are sent to hatcheries.
Shortly after the eggs hatch, the chicks are
sent to broiler farms, nearly all of which are
owned and operated by independent producers.
Tyson Foods contracts with more than 6,000
independent producers, who care for and raise
the chicks according to company standards.
We also own a small number of company
chicken farms. When the broilers reach the
desired processing weight, they are caught
and taken to one of the companys 63 chicken
processing plants.
At the plant, the chickens are processed to

meet the specific requirements of the customer,
which can range from a basic raw commodity
to a fully cooked, value-added product. Finished
chicken products are sent to distribution centers
and then transported to customers who sell the
chicken to consumers.
As a vertically integrated poultry company,
Tyson Foods also operates feed mills to produce
nutritionally formulated feeds for its breeders
and broilers. Corn and soybean meal remain
major production costs in the poultry industry,
representing roughly 45 percent of our cost of
growing a live chicken in fiscal year 2009.
With an average weekly production of 41.4
million chickens during fiscal year 2009, Tyson
Foods represents approximately 20 percent of
chicken production in the United States.
Domestic and international chicken sales
totaled approximately $9.7 billion and $1.6
billion respectively in fiscal year 2009.
Beef
Unlike our vertically integrated poultry business, Tyson Foods buys cattle
on the open market. The United States cattle industry is composed of
more than one million individual farms and ranches. Each year, cattle
producers market approximately 35 million cattle that are eventually
harvested for food. There are four primary stages in cattle and beef
production including cow-calf operation, stocker operation, feedlot
operation, and packer-processor. The process begins with the cow-calf
operator and finishes with a packer-processor such as Tyson Foods.
Tyson Foods has entered into various risk-sharing and procurement
arrangements with producers that help secure a supply of livestock for
daily start-up operations at the facilities. The company acquires
cattle through directly negotiated purchases with feedlot
producers through a variety of methods. The methods include
the open spot market; formula pricing (a reported price plus
some amount); and fixed price tied to a futures market. The
companys buyers purchase cattle on a daily basis, generally a
few days before the animals are required for processing. Live
animals are generally held in holding pens at one of Tyson
Foods 12 beef processing facilities for only a few hours.
With a market weight of 1,250 pounds and a yield of 62.2 percent, the
typical steer will produce a 777-pound carcass. The carcass will yield
approximately 620 pounds of meat and trim; 160 pounds of fat, bone,
and loss; and 30 pounds of variety meats.
Tyson Foods beef production during fiscal year 2009 averaged 139,400
head per week. The company represents approximately 22 percent of
the United States beef production. The companys domestic and
international beef sales totaled approximately $10.8 billion and $1.1
billion respectively in fiscal year 2009.
Pork
There are four primary stages in hog and pork
production, including sow-farrowing barns,
nurseries, finishing farms, and packer-processor.
The gestation period for hogs is approximately
114 days. Farrowings range from six to 13 pigs
per litter, with the average being about 10. The
number of pigs weaned averages 8.7 pigs per
litter. Pigs are generally weaned at three to four
weeks when they weigh 10 to 15 pounds. At
this time, they are moved to either a nursery, a
grower, or directly to a finishing building modified
to meet the needs of young pigs.
Tyson Foods acquires hogs through ectly

negotiated purchases with producers using a
variety of methods. The four primary methods
are formula (a reported price plus some
amount), the spot market, fixed price tied to
feed, and fixed price tied to a futures market.
Hogs are purchased on a daily basis, generally
a few days before the animals are required
for processing. With a market weight of
the typical
cass.
ther
will produce
cass
pork
oducts.
200-pound
about
During fiscal year 2009, with an average weekly

production of 393,300 head, Tyson Foods
represented approximately18 percent of pork
production in the United States. Fiscal year 2009
pork sales totaled approximately $3.4 billion
domestically and $671 million internationally.
Additionally, the Pork Group, Inc., a wholly
owned subsidiary of Tyson Foods, produces
finished hogs, feeder pigs, and weaned pigs
for sale to pork processors and finishers
throughout the country. The Pork Group has
an inventory of more than 50,000 sows and
has a total herd inventory of more than 230,000
hogs. Tyson Foods equity ownership of live
hog operations represents less than 1 percent
of the companys total pork production.
When pigs reach approximately 270 pounds,

producers sell them on either a live-weight or
carcass-weight basis to livestock exchanges,
producer-owned marketing networks, or directly
to packers such as Tyson Foods. Once the
hogs are slaughtered, the further-processed
carcasses are sold as boxed pork to purveyors
who fabricate the boxed pork into cuts sold to
consumers at retail and in foodservice operations.
Tyson Foods, however, adds value to pork by
producing branded, case-ready pork as well as
fully cooked pork items requiring less labor on
the part of the customer.
Prepared Foods
Tyson Foods products are not limited to maincourse protein. As an example, Tyson Foods
is the largest supplier of pepperoni and pizza
toppings to the foodservice industry. In addition,
we are the second largest manufacturer of flour
and corn tortilla chips in the United States.
Quick service Mexican restaurant chains are
the primary outlets for our tortilla products.
In addition to high-end culinary products
such as crepes, blintzes, and stuffed chicken
breasts, we are the leading supplier of bacon
and hams to the foodservice industry. We also
provide custom soups for casual dining chains,
which frees their skilled labor to work on other
menu items.
We market our prepared foods products to
retail delis, foodservice distributors, restaurant
operators, and on-site foodservice establishments,
such as schools, universities, corporate
cafeterias, hotel chains, health care facilities,
and the military.
The companys culinary and customer development
teams work with customers in the Tyson
Discovery Center to produce exciting and new
prepared foods to build incremental sales.
Domestic and international prepared food sales
totaled approximately $2.8 billion and $65
million respectively during fiscal year 2009.
Tyson Foods also consists of a number of corporate functions, such as Quality Assurance and
Food Safety, Sales, Finance, Accounting, Internal Audit, Human Resources, External Relations,
Legal, Information Systems, Marketing, Purchasing, Research and Development, Environmental,
Health and Safety, and Investor Relations. In total, the company employs approximately 117,000
Team Members in the United States and around the world with:
2009 fiscal year sales totaling approximately $26.7 billion;
A 2009 debt to capitalization ratio of 45 percent;
A net debt to capitalization ratio of 35 percent for fiscal year 2009; and
Assets totaling approximately $10.6 billion in fiscal year 2009.
2.3 Our Operations

Tyson Foods is an international food company with more than 400
production and distribution facilities and sales offices. Within the United
States, Tyson Foods has operations and offices in Alabama, Arizona,
Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey,
New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South
Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and
Wisconsin.
Moreover, either directly or through its subsidiaries, Tyson Foods has
facilities in, or participates in, joint venture operations located in Argentina,
Brazil, Canada, China, the Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, India, Ireland,
Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, the Philippines, Russia,
South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, the
United Kingdom, and Venezuela.
As part of ongoing efforts to improve operational efficiency, Tyson Foods
announced the:
Restructuring of its Emporia, Kansas, beef processing facility in
January 2008;
Closure of its Wilkesboro, North Carolina, cooked products plant in
February 2008;
Closure of its York, Nebraska, Prepared Foods facility in April 2008;
Acquisition of Central Industries poultry byproducts plant in
December 2008;
Closure of its Ponca City, Oklahoma, processed meats plant in
March 2009;
Sale of its Lakeside beef operation in Brooks, Alberta, Canada,
to XL Foods, Inc., in March 2009; and
Reopening and renovating of its Independence, Iowa, plant in
October 2009.
3.0 People
Tyson Foods is more than just a great company
to work for. At Tyson Foods, we strive to be a
company of diverse people working together
to produce food. Additionally, we strive to be
honorable people and to be a faith-friendly
company.
These rights, benefits, and responsibilities are

described in detail in our Team Member Bill of
Rights, and correspond with, or are in addition
to, all other rights provided by state or federal
law. CLICK HERE to view our Team Member
Bill of Rights.
Our employees, whom we call Team Members,

are our most valued resource. They enjoy many
rights, benefits, and responsibilities at Tyson
Foods. This includes but is not limited to:
We recognize our continued success as an

organization depends on the knowledge, skills,
and talents of our Team Members. We have
a tradition of building leadership from within.
Education and advancement opportunities
are available from entry-level positions to
senior management, and we actively foster
an environment where everyone has access
to these opportunities.
A safe workplace,
Access to existing state and federal benefits,
Freedom from discrimination and retaliation,
Compensation for work performed, and
Additionally, inclusion and valuing diversity are

cornerstones that have supported the growth
of our business throughout its history. It takes
the thoughts, backgrounds, and talents of our
117,000 Team Members to make our company
successful. We believe this commitment
contributes to a competitive advantage through
increased innovation, improved customer and
investor confidence, and attraction and retention
of outstanding Team Members.
The right to join together for collective

bargaining purposes.
3.1 Ethics
At Tyson Foods, we believe ethical business
is good business. Ethical business is everyday
business at Tyson Foods. After all, there is no
right way to do the wrong thing. We strive to
conduct our business in an ethical, honest
manner and in full compliance with all applicable
laws and regulations. We believe integrity is a
fundamental element in our relationships with
our many stakeholders. Our commitment to
operating with respect, trust, accountability,
and honor is modeled daily by our Team Members.
Core Values
Tyson Foods vision is to
be the worlds first choice
for protein solutions, while
maximizing
shareholder value.
Our Core Values are
fundamental to our
company. They shape and
direct our strategy and
inspire us daily. They are
integral to the way
we do business. Our Core Values guide our
relationships with our Team Members, customers
and consumers, suppliers, and independent
producers. Our goals, programs, and metrics
are derived from and support our Core Values.
Code of Conduct
Based on the foundation of our Core Values,
Tyson Foods has a Code of Conduct that
applies to the Board of Directors, all Team
Members, business divisions, and subsidiaries
of Tyson Foods. The Code of Conduct is a
written guideline that helps us make good
business decisions; its our guide to Doing
Whats Right.
The Code of Conduct provides direction on
how we are to conduct ourselves with respect
to key business
requirements such
as food safety, animal
well-being, regulatory
compliance, environmental
management, conflicts of
interest, and international
business practices. In April
2008, we published our
revised International Code
of Conduct. This revision
to the 2005 version included
framing the International
Code around our Core
Values and more clearly
reflecting the key principles
we embrace without regard
to geographical location.
Tyson Foods Governance Committee, chaired
by an independent Board member, administers
the companys Code of Conduct. This committee
reviews and assesses the companys Code of
Conduct and recommends proposed changes
to the Board for approval. The Governance
Committee also meets with the companys
Ethics and Compliance Officer, and as
appropriate, reviews and responds to conduct

or ethics issues raised by this officer. Periodically,
this committee reviews the adequacy and
implementation of the companys ethics and
compliance programs, and makes recommends
for any necessary changes. To review Tyson
Foods Governance Committee Charter, CLICK
HERE.
Its understood the written Code of Conduct
cannot provide guidance on every situation
Team Members may face during their business
activities. When the Code of Conduct is not
enough, Team Members are encouraged to
Ask Tyson First by using the
resources listed within the Code
of Conduct.
Ethics Training
All Tyson Foods Team Members, including the
Board of Directors, attend approximately one
hour of Ethics and Code of Conduct training
annually. This training provides information on
various ethical scenarios to provide Team
Members real life applicability. Team Members
are taught to make good decisions within the
framework of Doing Whats Right. They are
instructed to ask themselves the following
questions when they are uncertain about the
proper course of action in a difficult situation:
Does it comply with Tyson Foods Core
Values?
Is it the right thing to do?
Were others treated the way I want to be
treated?
Would Tyson Foods or I be embarrassed if
this action were reported in the newspaper?
Is it legal?
Responding to Ethical Concerns

At Tyson Foods, we are committed to providing various avenues in which
Team Members and other stakeholders can confidentially and anonymously
report any suspected violations of the law, applicable regulations,
company policies, or the provisions of the Code of Conduct. We offer
the Tyson Help Line and the Tyson Web Line. These options are provided
to uphold our commitment to our Core Values and protect the rights of
Team Members throughout our organization,
without fear of retaliation.
Additionally, Tyson Foods Human Resources Department offers local

open door avenues to help Team Members resolve areas of dispute
and to report unethical activity. Should Team Members have any issues,
we encourage them to Tell Tyson First by contacting their supervisors
or Human Resources Department. Moreover, if any Team Member feels
that he or she is being treated unfairly with respect to any matter or if he
or she wishes to remain anonymous, the Tyson Help Line and Tyson Web
Line are always available.
The Tyson Help Line is accessible to

callers throughout North and South America
and China 24-hours a day, and offers
assistance in more than 150 languages.
The Tyson Web Line is an Internet-based

reporting mechanism available in five
languages and accessible worldwide.
We review all reports and concerns received and investigate and respond
as appropriate. In 2007, we implemented a new case management tool.
This tool allows Ethics and Compliance personnel to more accurately
access and analyze reported allegations for the purposes of investigation,
follow-up, and enhancing reporting capabilities to both senior management
and the appropriate Board Committees.
3.2 RECOGNIZING AN EXCEPTIONAL WORKFORCE

We are committed to attracting, developing, and retaining a group of talented Team Members and to creating a workplace that allows each Team
Member to contribute to the collective success of our company. Our programs and initiatives related to employment practices, compensation and
benefits, talent management, diversity and inclusion, and Team Member relations are important to fulfilling this commitment, especially in todays
challenging economic climate. To be an inspiration to our Team Members about their work, their contributions, and their company is our pledge.
Our Team Members

Tyson Foods employs more than 117,000
people worldwide, with 100,000 Team Members
working in our U.S.-based operations and
17,000 at our International operations.
Approximately 99 percent of our U.S.-based
Team Members serve in full-time positions.
We are committed to providing a good working
environment and to retaining our Team Members
through competitive wages, fair treatment,
training, benefits, and safe working conditions.
The companys management, management
support, and hourly Team Member turnover
rate was more than 30 percent lower in fiscal
year 2009 as compared to fiscal year 2008. At
the end of fiscal year 2009, over 50 percent
of our U.S.-based Team Members had five or
more years of service with Tyson Foods, and
within this group, approximately 20 percent had
20 years or more of service. This improvement
in turnover and the many years of Team Member
tenure demonstrate we are making great
progress in retaining a talented workforce.
Employment Practices
Tyson Foods employment practices underscore
our commitment to treat our Team Members
with dignity. We have policies that ensure positive
employment practices are implemented
wherever we operate. Additionally, we comply
with all applicable employment and labor laws
in the countries where we do business. We
provide anonymous channels that can be

used to report policy violations, and we fully
investigate all issues raised.
Hiring the Best
We maintain a robust recruiting process. This
process not only ensures our compliance with
federal, state, and local hiring practices, it also
ensures we are hiring Team Members with
skills and experience that align with both the
current and future needs of our company.
Our Professional Recruitment Department
collaborates with hiring managers to develop
proactive talent management plans for
each business unit. This provides us with a
comprehensive talent acquisition plan and
recruiting strategy for each available position.
If a student or recent college graduate is looking
for an exciting internship or a jumping-in point
for his or her career, our College Relations
Department can help him or her find a future.
The mission of our College Relations Department
is to forecast the entry-level needs of the
organization and to leverage our college
recruiting strategies to support local area
universities. The fulfillment of this mission
creates a qualified and diverse candidate pool
that will deliver entry-level hires company wide.
We also understand the importance of attracting
and hiring talent local to our operations. We
employ 117,000 Team Members at more than
400 facilities and offices in the United States
and around the world. Many of our facilities and

offices maintain local hiring practices designed
to ensure their Team Member and management
positions are populated with local residents.
This practice not only benefits the economy
and communities local to our facilities, but it
also ensures our workforce is representative of
our customers and consumers.
Employment Eligibility
We are committed to ensuring all of our hiring
locations consistently implement and follow our
Employment Eligibility Policy. This policy sets
forth guidelines for all Tyson Foods locations
that ensure compliance with the Immigration
Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) and
Form I-9 regulations. We will not tolerate any
person knowingly hiring or allowing anyone to
continue working if he or she is not authorized
for employment. Accordingly, we have
established procedures that include training,
certification, record keeping, and third-party
verification to ensure compliance with all
federal and state laws regarding the verification
of employment authorization.
We also voluntarily
participate in the
U.S. Department
of Homeland Securitys E-Verify Employment
Eligibility Verification Program and have done
so since 1998. The Department of Homeland
Security and the Social Security Administration
jointly operate this program. Our participation

in this program allows us to check the
employment eligibility of new hires online.
Through this program, we are able to access
and compare information from a Team Members
Form I-9 with more than 444 million records in
the Social Security Administration database
and more than 60 million records in the
Department of Homeland Security databases.
We believe our use of this program has been
instrumental in determining the employment
eligibility of our Team Members.
Equal Employment Opportunities
We have a continuing policy to
ensure fair and equal employment
opportunities are extended to all
persons without regard to race,
religion, color, sex (including pregnancy), age,
sexual orientation, national origin, disability,
and veterans status or any other protected
status under federal, state, or local law. This
policy applies to recruitment, selection,
placement, assignment, training, promotion,
demotion, rate of pay, benefits, leave of absence,
lay-off, termination, work-related social/
recreational programs, and other conditions
of employment.
Harassment and Discrimination
We maintain a strict policy prohibiting any kind
of unlawful harassment and discrimination, such
as that involving race, sex, religion, color, age,

national origin, veterans or disability status,
or sexual orientation. This policy prohibits
harassment and discrimination in any form,
including verbal, written, visual or physical.
We require 100 percent of our Team Members,
including management and non-management
and salaried and hourly, attend approximately
one hour of anti-harassment and anti-discrimination
training annually. Moreover, we consider
harassment, discrimination, and retaliation
to be serious issues and have invested
considerable resources to prevent their
occurrence. We fully investigate each allegation
of harassment and discrimination and implement
corrective actions, including disciplinary action,
as appropriate.
Human Rights
Tyson Foods human rights practices are
grounded in the companys Core Values, Code
of Conduct, and Team Member Bill of Rights.
These documents outline the many rights,
benefits, and responsibilities enjoyed by the
Team Members of Tyson Foods. These rights
and benefits and responsibilities correspond
with or are in addition to all other rights
provided by state or federal law. We require
100 percent of our Team Members, including
the Board of Directors, to attend approximately
one hour of ethics and Code of Conduct
training annually.
We strive to provide our Team Members a safe

workplace. We ensure Team Members receive
payment of wages owed for the work they
perform. Our Team Members have a right to
retain their own social, economic, cultural,
and political institutions. Moreover, we do
not employ anyone under the legal age of
employment, and we do not tolerate forced and
compulsory labor. To our knowledge, we do not
have operations at risk for incidents of child
labor and forced and compulsory labor, nor
have we have incurred any incidents in which
the rights of indigenous people were violated.
Labor Relations
Pursuant to our Team Member Bill of Rights,
we respect each Team Members legal right to
organize without fear of retaliation, repression,
or any other form of discrimination. To our
knowledge, we do not have operations in which
the right to exercise freedom of association and
collective bargaining are at risk.
Approximately 33,000 Team Members in the
U.S. and 7,000 Team Members in foreign
countries are subject to collective bargaining
agreements with various labor unions. We
are committed to good-faith bargaining and
to meaningful communication with our Team
Members and their representatives. When
significant operational changes are imminent,
we notify our Team Members as required by the
U.S. Department of Labor Worker Adjustment

and Retraining Notification Act (WARN); local,
state, or country-specific laws; or any
requirements set forth in respective collective
bargaining agreements.
Compensation and Benefits
Tyson Foods believes in sharing its success
with its Team Members. With that philosophy,
we seek to provide compensation and benefits
that attract, retain, and motivate our Team
Members. We believe our compensation and
benefits package is one of the best in the
industry.
During fiscal year 2009, we spent more than
$3.5 billion dollars in salaried and hourly
compensation, social security and Medicare
tax, federal unemployment tax, and state
unemployment tax for our full and part-time
U.S. based Team Members. Additionally, Tyson
Foods had benefits costs of approximately
$750 million for our U.S.-based Team Members
during this fiscal year. Examples of these
benefits include, but are not limited to, health
care, life insurance, accidental death and
dismemberment insurance, long term disability,
stock match, and 401(k) match. Below we
highlight several key aspects of our
compensation and benefits package.
Compensation
We employ full-time and part-time hourly and
salaried Team Members. The majority of our
Team Members compensated at an hourly
rate support our company by preparing food
products in processing plants. These Team
Members are compensated at or above U.S.
minimum wage requirements.
To ensure our compensation package remains
competitive, we maintain a Compensation
Department. This department conducts wage
surveys and reviews cost-of-living indicators
and community norms regularly. During fiscal
year 2009, our average hourly rate was $11.72
per hour. This rate is 61.86 percent higher than
the federal minimum wage.
Our Compensation department also establishes
and maintains comprehensive salary programs
and policies. These programs and policies
are designed to attract and retain high-caliber
people, stimulate and reward high-level
performance, and provide flexibility to fit
individual circumstances. Additionally, our
Compensation department ensures salaries
paid are competitive with those paid by
comparable companies for similar work in the
community and in the industry.
We also maintain a Compensation Committee.
As part of our governance and oversight
process, the Compensation Committee reports
to the Board of Directors. The Compensation

Committee supports the Board of Directors
and works with management to ensure key
executives are compensated in accordance
with our management philosophy, competitive
practice, and regulatory requirements. The
committee also reviews, provides advice on,
and, where appropriate, approves compensation
objectives, plans, and levels.
Health Care
We are committed to partnering with our Team
Members to help them become better health
care consumers. We provide affordable health,
life, dental, vision, and prescription drug benefits
to our Team Members and their families. We
require all Team Members who have been
employed for more than three months to have
health care coverage through either the company-
sponsored health plan or through a family
members plan. Therefore, 100 percent of the
companys eligible Team Members have access
to health care coverage.
In 2008, we expanded our health care program
to include numerous enhancements such as
discounts on diabetic test strips, generic
medication incentives, and free online personal-
health risk assessments. We also began offering
a Tobacco Cessation Program to all insured
Team Members, and their covered dependents
18 years-of-age and older. This program offers
free personal phone counseling, free self-help

materials, information about available community
programs, and a free eight-week supply of
nicotine replacement therapy. Team Members
also have access to prescription medications
for smoking cessation upon request from their
physician. More than 2,700 Team Members and
covered dependents have taken advantage of
this program already.
meet future lifestyle needs and goals.

Team Members are given the opportunity
to decide the amount of money they want
to contribute to the plan through payroll
deductions on a before-tax basis, choose
how their contributions will be allocated among
different investment funds, and adjust their rate
of contribution and investment mix, as their
financial situation or savings goals change in
the future. Moreover, we also offer:
In 2008, we began offering a Disease Management

Program. This program provides free,
comprehensive support to eligible Team
Members and their insured dependents in
managing several chronic diseases such as
diabetes, asthma, congestive heart failure,
coronary artery disease, and chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease. This program offers
customized education, one-on-one disease
management counseling, advice, tools for
monitoring disease conditions, and various
other support services based on the particular
needs of Team Members or their dependents.
Three age-based investment funds that

offer a moderate-risk portfolio appropriate
to an individual Team Members age;
An InvestForward program that automatically
places a Team Member in the appropriate
age-based fund and manages annual
rebalancing; and
GuidancePlus, an online tool which helps
Team Members set retirement goals and
determine if their contribution level is
sufficient for meeting these goals.
Stock Purchase Plan
Retirement Savings
Our Retirement Savings Plan helps our Team
Members fulfill one of their most important
goals financial security. In addition to company
match and payroll deduction features, our
Retirement Savings Plan offers eligible Team
Members a unique opportunity to design their
own personal savings and investment plan to
We also offer our Team Members the opportunity

to buy a stake in the future of our company.
The Tyson Stock Purchase Plan allows eligible
Team Members to contribute up to 20 percent
of their pay to purchase Tyson Foods stock.
After a year of service, the company will match
a portion of the Team Members contributions.
Chaplains Program
Chaplains have
been providing
compassionate
pastoral care to our
Team Members and
their families since
October 2000.
Currently, 120
full-time and part-time chaplains, representing
28 different faith group affiliations, support
this program. This is a proactive assistance
program with a spiritual foundation. Team
Members talk in confidence with our chaplains
about many issues, including health concerns,
marital and family issues, grief and death,
substance abuse, and job and financial concerns.
Our chaplains also provide referrals for premarital
counseling and weddings, and celebrate with
Team Members when new babies are born. We
believe this program provides an extra level of
care for our Team Members.
Workforce Home Benefit Program
Tyson Foods maintains the
Workforce Home Benefit
program to assist eligible
Team Members in becoming
homeowners. The program
is one of the largest of its kind in the U.S. and
enables Team Members who meet program
qualifications to obtain financial assistance

with closing costs when buying a home. It
also provides access to expert counseling
for the future home owners, as well as flexible
and low-down-payment mortgage products.
To help defray Team Members out-of-pocket
costs when buying a home, the program offers
a closing-cost assistance fund that will provide
second mortgages to eligible Team Members.
The fund will provide up to $3,000 per eligible
Team Member. These second mortgages will
be forgiven over five years, provided the Team
Member continues to work at Tyson Foods and
continues to own and occupy the home.
Talent Management
Tyson Foods has a tradition of building
leadership from within. We recognize the
importance of having both strong current leaders
and future bench strength. Our Diversity and
Leadership department and other areas in
Human Resources provide several programs
designed to enhance both personal and
organizational effectiveness. The departments
offer a variety of services and programs to help
prepare our Team Members for the challenges
they will face in guiding the company to sustained
profitable growth and market leadership.
Job Skills and Leadership Training

Working for Tyson Foods offers more than
a great job. Educational opportunities are
available from entry-level positions to senior
management, and we actively foster an
environment where everyone has access to
these opportunities. The type of training and
hours of training a Team Member takes varies
based on job responsibilities. Many of our
Team Members must complete annual
regulatory and companymandated compliance
training requirements such
as those related to food
safety, environmental
protection, animal wellbeing, transportation safety, harassment and
discrimination, ethical business conduct, and
workplace safety.
We also offer leadership training to our Team
Members. For example, in April 2007, we
launched our Supervisor Awareness Training
Series (SATS), an online, frontline leadership
training program for supervisors. This program
currently offers 11 training topics designed to
increase the awareness and leadership skills of
our frontline supervisors. This includes topics
related to, but not limited to, building trust,
dignity and respect, sensitivity training, workers
compensation, safety awareness, and improving
retention. To date, our supervisors have
completed just over 43,000 SATS courses and

logged almost 24,000 hours of training. Future
courses will include How to Improve Attendance
and The ABCs (Always Be Consistent) of
Supervision.
Tyson Foods Leadership College provides
courses focused on seven core leadership
competencies divided into three levels of
complexity including leadership, business
acumen, strategic agility, communication,
building a culture of inclusion, developing self
and others, and understanding Tyson Foods.
Certified facilitators teach each course. During
fiscal years 2008 and 2009, 3,245 management
and management support Team Members
participated in training provided by the Tyson
Foods Leadership College.
Our Educational Assistance Plan encourages
and enables Team Members to increase their
knowledge and skills and further their education.
All full-time Team Members who have been
employed with Tyson Foods for at least one
year are eligible for tuition, books, and fee
reimbursement. The tuition reimbursement
portion of the education-assistance plan is
designed to encourage Team Members to seek
and achieve degrees from accredited colleges
and universities, and to encourage career
development that meets the current and future
business needs of our company. Two hundred
and ninety-nine Team Members took advantage
of this program during fiscal year 2008, and

297 during fiscal year 2009. Tyson Foods
overall investment in the program during these
two years totaled $1.3 million dollars.
We also offer vocational training for Team
Members with specific skills or trades. For
example, we maintain a Maintenance Training
Program designed to increase the skills of our
Maintenance Team Members. Over the course
of the program, Team Members complete a
combination of electronic and written material,
classroom and lab instruction, and on-the-job
training. The program, which is facilitated in
the plants, is designed for pay increases to
correspond to specific training levels achieved.
Team Members are rewarded for the skills
theyve gained and encouraged to continue
to advance.
Regular Performance and Career

Development Reviews
All of our management and management
support Team Members participate in regular
performance and career development reviews.
The Tyson Evaluation and Measurement
System (TEAMS) for salaried, management
support, and management support technical
Team Members aligns individual performance
with organizational goals. TEAMS provides a
consistent approach to developmental planning
and appraisal by:
Clarifying performance expectations;
Identifying improvement and growth
opportunities;
Encouraging better communication,
training, and support for improved
performance; and
Setting effective Team Member goals
that help to achieve organization
objectives and that help develop skills
and abilities to aid in career growth.
Individual Development Plans
Job Rotation
In addition to the TEAMS review process, we

provide Team Members with the training and
resources needed to develop an Individual
Development Plan (IDP). IDPs are a Team
Members road map to reaching his or her
career objectives. To develop an IDP, Team
Members:
We also provide a structured approach to job

rotations. Formal job rotations provide Team
Members with expanded experience, enhance
functional skills across our business, and
strengthen our culture of talent development.
Job rotations allow us to create movement
within a team, breaking down silos and bringing
new scope and perspectives to the team. They
also allow us to staff open positions to meet
both current and future business needs and
provide a pipeline of well-rounded leadership.
Seek out feedback from others, such as a

supervisor, direct reports, and peers;
Review feedback from others in order to
identify developmental opportunities;
Conduct a self-assessment to identify
strengths, weaknesses, interests, and
values;
Link their individual development needs
and opportunities to business strategies
and goals; and
Develop long-term and short-term career
development goals, activities, and success
criteria.
When a Team Member develops an IDP, he
or she is looking to improve performance,
master competencies for personal and
career development, or prepare for future
opportunities to take another position or
increase responsibility within the company.
Leaders Into Champions

Leaders Into Champions (LINC) is an advanced
leadership program at Tyson Foods designed
to empower our high-potential leaders as
organizational and industry champions who
contribute significantly to the performance and
profitability of the company. The LINC program
structure is centered on engagement,
empowerment, and growth. Business unit
leaders nominate and select Team Members
to be involved in the two-year
LINC program based on a
Team Members performance,
influence, representation, and
potential.
During the first year, LINC participants work to
understand their individual purpose, vision, and
values and align them with the needs of Tyson
Foods. Participants increase their self-awareness

and build relationships with fellow Team
Members, including senior leaders across the
company. Lastly, participants create personal
development plans focusing on immediate
areas of influence within their team, competency
development, and short-term career goals.
In their second year, LINC participants utilize
the tools and resources gained in year one and
apply them to a real-world, business-focused
application, otherwise known as a stretch
assignment. The stretch assignment puts
participants outside of their comfort zone by
building new relationships across Tyson Foods
and by gaining a new and broader understanding
of our company.
During fiscal year 2009, we graduated our
first LINC class of 21 Team Members and,
as of October 2009, have 38 Team Members
participating in the LINC program. We believe
this program will:
Ensure the strength of our senior leadership
pipeline and help prepare our leaders to
address current and future challenges and
opportunities;
Create organizational champions who
are empowered to create a competitive
advantage within our culture;
Expand the breadth and depth of our influence
and leadership within the industry; and
Drive innovation, create change, and transfer

organizational values.
Succession Planning
Succession planning allows us to build a
formalized plan to fill specific roles in an
established time frame. Through the succession
planning process, we identify critical jobs
based on business strategy and identify a slate
of Team Member candidates capable of filling
these positions. This process also allows us to
analyze our ability to fill critical vacancies from
within and identify areas that are vulnerable to
turnover, retirement, or skill gaps.
Diversity and Inclusion
We are committed to maintaining a culture that
fosters inclusion and diversity. We believe it is
the unique ideas and contributions of our Team
Members that drives our continued business
success. Our inclusion and diversity policies
and practices are built around the premise that
all Team Members feel: At Tyson Foods, I have
the opportunity to be part of a winning team,
and grow personally and professionally, while
being myself.
We have developed and implemented key
activities supporting our inclusion and diversity
business strategies. In 2005, we established an
Executive Diversity Business Council. Composed
of senior level leaders, this council develops
and leads initiatives that foster inclusion and
participation of all Team Members. The primary

areas of focus for our Executive Diversity
Business Council are business resource
groups; inclusion and diversity education and
communication; and Team Member engagement.
Business Resource Groups
We have established four Business Resource
Groups (BRG) including a Womens BRG; a
Mens BRG; a Multicultural BRG; and, new for
fiscal year 2009, a Veterans BRG. These groups
foster engagement and help our Team Members
feel more connected to our companys overall
business strategy. Each BRG has a business
plan that outlines initiatives and events that
support their specific affinity network, and that
align with our BRG Pillars of Success, which
include professional development; business
development;
community
development;
and networking,
retention, and
engagement.
Inclusion and Diversity Education and
Communication
At Tyson Foods, we believe inclusion and
diversity are about more than a persons outward
appearance. We believe inclusion and diversity
is about the individual and collective thoughts,

backgrounds, and talents of our Team Members.
This belief directly supports our Core Values
that state, We strive to be a company of
diverse people working together to produce
food. Accordingly, we launched an extensive
inclusion and diversity training program in
August 2005.
The first phase of this training program included
an externally facilitated program titled Managers
Mindset/Managing Inclusion. All officers and
contracted Team Members attended this
program. We are now offering the second
phase of this training initiative with a workshop
titled Pause-Engage-Expand-Reflect (PEER).
PEER is a one-day workshop in which leaders:
Pause from their normal daily routines to
gain more in-depth insights about their
experiences and the experiences of others;
Engage in open, honest, thoughtful dialogue
with others;
Expand their views of the world and people
around them; and
Reflect upon how they can take what they
have learned about themselves back to their
jobs as well as their everyday lives.
Everyone is unique and different. By recognizing
and rewarding each persons unique contributions,
we create winning teams. To reinforce this
message, we share informational papers with
our Team Members that recognize cultural

celebrations and highlight important leaders,
artists, and entertainers from diverse backgrounds. Developed on a monthly basis, these
papers share the history and importance of
these celebrations and cultural figures and contribute to our Team Members education and
awareness of diversity.
Team Member Engagement (Attraction
Retention Recruitment)
Primarily implemented in our processing plants,
the Pipeline Management Process (PMP) provides
a systematic process for identifying Team
Members, from first-level supervisors to upper
management, as candidates for developmental
and advancement opportunities. We currently
have more than 900 Team Members identified
as PMP candidates who maintain action items
that provide professional development plans
designed to increase job and managerial skills.
of every aspect of our business. As such, we:

Actively look for opportunities to increase
our spending with current diverse suppliers,
as well as adding new diverse suppliers to
our supply base.
Partner with suppliers to encourage diversity
in their supply chain.
Include diverse suppliers in our sourcing
opportunities as part of our Sourcing Policy
and Procedures.
Maintain membership in and support events
hosted by regional and national minority and
womens organizations such as the National
Minority Supplier Development Council,
the Arkansas-Mississippi Minority Supplier
Development Council, and the Womens
Business Council Southwest Region.
Inclusion and diversity is the result of a conscious

effort to eliminate barriers that are present
because of our natural human differences. By
leveraging our diverse heritages, we can produce
a better result because of our willingness to
accept others as equally valuable and important.
At Tyson Foods, we accomplish this by increasing
our awareness about how our own thinking,
actions, and backgrounds impact those
around us. We continue to educate our leaders
on how to effectively champion and energize
a multi-cultural workforce. We believe this
commitment contributes to a competitive
advantage through increased innovation,
improved customer and investor confidence,
and ultimately attracting and retaining
outstanding Team Members.
Continue to participate in diversity trade

shows and other networking functions.
Supplier Diversity
We also know that having a diverse group of
supply partners makes good business sense.
Working with minority-owned and womenowned businesses is key to helping us meet
our high standards for quality products and
ultimately creates more value for our shareholders.
We maintain a diverse group of supply partners
because we want diversity to be an integral part
3.3 ENSURING THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OUR TEAM MEMBERS

Tyson Foods promotes a culture that values
the health and safety of its Team Members.
We view workplace injuries and illnesses as
unacceptable, and improving our health and
safety performance is a priority. We have
created and implemented programs to reduce
the frequency and severity of these events,
and we review and monitor our performance
closely.
Our Core Values state we strive to provide a
safe work environment for our Team Members,
and we are committed to making sure they
return home to their families as healthy and
safe as when they came to work. Additionally,
we aspire to have zero injuries and illnesses,
and are working to build an incident-free
culture that is grounded on the premise of
eliminating workplace risks and hazards and
continual improvement. Our Environmental,
Health, and Safety Policy is available for review
at www.tyson.com.
Management System Approach

As of December 2008, all Tyson Foods facilities
in the United States and Mexico have
implemented Environmental, Health, and Safety
(EHS) Management Systems. The health and
safety aspect of this system fulfills the
requirements set forth in Occupational Health
and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001,
which is an international occupational health
and safety management system specification.
As such, each facility has developed and
implemented procedures and controls
regarding health and safety:
Communication;
Corrective and preventative action;
Compliance management;
Hazard identification, assessment, and
control;
Document and record control;
Emergency preparedness and response;
Training, awareness, and competency; and
Performance review.
state, and local regulations pertaining to worker

health and safety including, but not limited to,
personal protective equipment, hazardous
material handling, training, reporting unsafe
conditions, and workplace injuries and illnesses.
Additionally, many of our locations are equipped
to provide first aid and access to medical
treatment by a trained staff of occupational
health care providers.
Health and Safety Programs
Members of our EHS department develop and
administer our workplace health and safety
programs. This team includes, but is not limited
to, occupational safety, industrial hygiene,
health care, ergonomic, process safety,
loss prevention, and transportation safety
professionals serving in key roles at both the
corporate and processing-plant levels. Working
in collaboration with our processing plants, this
team develops and implements programs to:
Protect the health and safety of our Team
Members;
Identify and eliminate or control work-
related hazards;
Our implementation of this systematic approach

to health and safety is voluntary, and represents
a significant advancement from current industry
practices. We believe the implementation of
this system demonstrates our commitment to
the health and safety of our Team Members
and to the continual improvement our health
and safety performance.
Comply with all health and safety laws and

requirements applicable to our operations;
All of our collective bargaining agreements

contain provisions related to workplace health
and safety. They spell out our commitment to
being in compliance with all applicable federal,
Treat and manage work-related and non

work-related injuries and illnesses;
Educate Team Members on injury and

illness prevention and hazard recognition;
Minimize or prevent property damage or

loss;
Respond to and investigate injuries,
illnesses, and other incidents;
Assess a processing plants health and

safety performance;
hearing conservation, ergonomics, and electrical

safe work practices.
Minimize ergonomic-related risk factors;

and
Team Members receive regular health and

safety training throughout their career with
Tyson Foods. Through site-specific management
systems, our facility health and safety
professionals identify and document the jobspecific health and safety training requirements
for each job classification at their facilities.
They also identify how this training will be
performed and who is responsible for delivering
this training. Facilities use a combination of
training styles to fulfill job specific training
requirements, including on-the-job training,
web-based training, self-study training courses,
internal and external instructor-led training, and
other training methods as needed.
Create and communicate solutions for

preventing and mitigating losses related
to the operation of Commercial Motor
Vehicles.
Team Members throughout our company work
directly with their plants management team
to identify and eliminate workplace health and
safety hazards. Through formal safety and
ergonomic committees, management and
non-management Team Members partner and
meet regularly to continually improve their
plants health and safety performance through
key activities such as education, inspections,
and investigations. At the end of fiscal year
2009, approximately 3,000 (less than 25 percent)
of our management and non-management
Team Members served on safety and ergonomic
committees.
Team Member Health and Safety Training
Our ability to provide a safe workplace is
directly related to the knowledge, skills, and
experience of our Team Members. To this end,
we have implemented a robust health and
safety training program that ensures our Team
Members have a clear understanding of their
health and safety roles and responsibilities.
New Team Members receive awareness-level
training regarding the health and safety hazards
and procedures applicable to most jobs and
work areas in their facility. Approximately 30
health and safety topics are discussed during
this training. This includes, but is not limited to,
safe equipment practices, personal protective
equipment, emergency action and response,
Health and Safety Audits

Our health and safety audit process is an
essential component of responsible business
practice and continual improvement. Facilityled audits are relatively informal and involve
facility management teams conducting routine
checks to ensure health and safety program
elements and standards are being fulfilled.
Specifically, facility-led health and safety
audits:
Provide for the early recognition and
management of hazards;
Build a facilitys confidence in their
compliance; and
Increase our Team Members health and
safety awareness.
Corporate professionals conduct compliance
audits at each major facility annually. In fiscal
years 2008 and 2009, these professionals
conducted more than 370 facility safety audits.
These audits focus on a facilitys implementation

and conformance with company standards
and applicable health and safety regulatory
requirements and include, but are not limited
to, program and permit compliance requirement
reviews, facility walk-around inspections,
recordkeeping and documentation reviews, and
evaluations of data and reports for trending and
performance indications.
Our Environmental, Health, and Safety Audit
Manager performs quality assurance audits.
These audits evaluate the effectiveness of
facility-led and corporate-led audits. They also
ensure corporate program goals are being met,
and assure the value and integrity of the
companys health and safety audit process.
Eight quality assurance audits are conducted
annually. The audit manager performs these
audits at random processing facilities.
Promoting Health and Wellness
We have a long-standing commitment to the
health and well-being of our Team Members
and their families. We recognize our Team
Members perform their best when they feel
their best, and we encourage our Team
Members to understand health risks and take
an active role in ensuring their health and
wellness.
We maintain an
Occupational
Health Services
program originally
formed in 1977.
This program
provides qualified
health-care
professionals for
the management
of work-related injuries and illnesses. The

program has expanded over the years and
now offers Team Members numerous health
programs and services ranging from information
related to diet, nutrition, and communicable
diseases to on-site health screenings and
influenza vaccines. For example, in October
2009, more than 450 Team Members at our
Springdale, Arkansas, corporate offices
participated in our annual health fair. The health
and wellness information provided at the health
fair helps to inform, educate, and empower
our Team Members to adopt healthier lifestyle
behaviors. Team Members associated with
the management of our Occupational Health
Services program are committed to reducing
workplace injuries and illnesses and to
maintaining and promoting the health and wellbeing of our Team Members.
Our Occupational Health Services engages
with government and non-government
organizations as well as health care providers
to remain informed of occupational and nonoccupational health issues and trends. As an
example, our Occupational Health Services
Team has been instrumental in developing
our companys Pandemic Preparation and
Response Plan and our communication efforts
with Team Members regarding Influenza A
(H1N1). Formerly known as North American
and Swine Flu, this influenza strain emerged
in the spring of 2009. To date, a few Team
Member cases of Influenza A (H1N1) have
been confirmed at Tyson locations. While
local management teams and health services
departments managed these situations
proactively and aggressively, it reminded us
of the importance of communicating with our
Team Members about practicing common-
sense, practical guidelines for protecting

their health and well-being. As such, our
Occupational Health Services team launched
an extensive communication program to ensure
our Team Members knew how to protect
themselves and their families from the Influenza
A (H1N1) virus as well as seasonal influenza.
With the assistance of our Occupational Health
Services team and various outside agencies,
we administered 12,180 seasonal influenza
vaccines to our Team Members in the U.S.
during the 2008 and 2009 flu seasons.
regulated drug and alcohol testing, driver

qualifications, inspections, maintenance,
and repairs. Facility managers are responsible
for implementing the requirements of the
standards and for verifying compliance.
Additionally, during this same timeframe, we
developed and implemented the Tyson Foods
CMV Driver Safety Manual. The manual is a
concise set of requirements and responsibilities
identifying only what each driver must know
about Tyson Foods CMV safety and compliance
expectations.
Improving Fleet Safety
The final step in CMV safety excellence is

accountability. Our operational standards
contain a required self-audit process that
includes a review of each regulatory and loss
prevention requirement. We also maintain an
assessment program that consists of on-site
assessments conducted by corporate-based
transportation safety specialists. These
assessments review a facilitys compliance
with federal, state, and local regulations and
company policies, as well as driver performance.
If a non-conformance is identified, an analysis
is conducted to determine the reason for the
non-conformance, and facilities are required to
take action to correct non-conformances.
We remain
committed to
systematically
enhancing the
compliant and
safe operation
of our
commercial motor vehicles (CMV), and to
mitigating the potential risks associated with
their operation. As a geographically diverse
organization with fleet activities taking place
at almost every company location, we believe
establishing clear and accessible direction and
expectations for operations management is
essential. Ensuring our drivers and their
managers know what to do and how to do it
safely and in compliance is a key element to
our transportation compliance and safety
efforts.
During fiscal year 2008, we completed the
development and implementation of a
comprehensive set of operational standards
that identify specific responsibilities and
requirements for achieving CMV compliance
and safety. These standards address key topics
such as hours of service, crash reporting,
Our systematic approach to CMV compliance

and safety represents a significant shift from
standard industry practice. We believe providing
resources and direction for our managers in
the form of operational standards and concise
information drivers need to know has resulted
in an effective CMV loss prevention and
compliance program. For example, we have
reduced vehicle rollovers by 36 percent since
fiscal year 2007. We also believe this approach
establishes a gateway for continual improvement.
We are more effective at identifying trends and
then implementing process controls that target

issues to be managed or eliminated.
Ergonomics
For well over a decade, we have employed
various ergonomic programs and strategies to
help create a work environment that minimizes
Team Member exposure to musculoskeletal risk
factors with the potential to affect body parts
such as hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, and
the neck and back. In short, we strive to make
work easier for our Team Members by designing
work requirements that fit the job to the Team
Member, not the Team Member to the job.
As such, we maintain a very aggressive
approach to ergonomics. We require our facility
management teams to establish the foundational
support their site-specific ergonomics program
requires. This includes providing for a written
ergonomic program, properly allocated
resources, an established chain-of-command,
and defined roles and responsibilities. We
also maintain an extensive ergonomic training
program that delivers key ergonomic concepts
and tools to management, ergonomic program
managers and teams, supervisors, hourly Team
Members, and technical support Team Members,
such as engineers and health care professionals.
Our facilities use an ergonomic assessment
tool to identify, quantify, and prioritize
ergonomic risk factors in the workplace.
This assessment considers health indicators
such as injury and discomfort reports and
operational indicators such as productivity
problems and absenteeism. Facility management
teams and hourly Team Members then
collaborate to develop and implement engineering,
administrative, and work-practice solutions to
control these risk factors.
Our ergonomic approach also relies heavily

upon Team Member participation. We believe
our Team Members are critical to the success
of our ergonomic approach. Their feedback
is encouraged during all aspects of worksite
analysis, hazard prevention, control, and
evaluation of effectiveness of corrective
actions, and is used to identify additional jobs
or areas of concern.
To ensure our ergonomic approach is effective,
facility management teams conduct annual
program reviews. These reviews evaluate
program successes and identify opportunities
for enhancement. They commonly focus on
injury-illness rates and severity rates; average
lost days per case; average restricted days per
case; workers compensation costs; percent
of ergonomics claims versus total number of
claims; average workers compensation cost
per ergonomic claim; and absentee rate and
turnover.
As noted above, we maintain an ergonomic
approach that makes work easier for our
Team Members. We believe this approach
helps our Team Members focus on quality
work; drives process improvement and
increased productivity; reduces the risk factors
that could cause musculoskeletal disorders, as
well as reduces the number of musculoskeletal
disorders; and improves the overall quality of
the work environment for our Team Members.
Our Health and Safety Performance

We measure our health and safety performance
using the Occupational Safety and Health
Administrations (OSHA) incident calculations
for Lost Time Incident Rate, Total Recordable
Incident Rate, and Days Away, Restricted, and
Transfer Rate. We also score our health and
safety performance. Introduced in fiscal year
2006, this process, known as our Safety Metric
Score, not only analyzes the historical costs
associated with injuries and illnesses, but also
places greater emphasis on their frequency and
severity. During fiscal year 2009, the company
reduced its Total Recordable Incident Rate by
19.2 percent and its Days Away, Restricted,
and Transfer Rate by 20.7 percent. In addition,
we improved our safety metric score by 14
percent during fiscal year 2009.
1. In our 2007 Sustainability Report, we reported Lost Time Rate, Total Recordable Incident Rate, and
Days, Away, Restricted, and Transfer Rate as 1.18, 12.95, and 8.88 respectively for fiscal year 2007.
These rates were calculated based upon a manual OSHA 300 Log documentation process. In 2007, we
implemented a computerized Occupational Health and Safety System. As such, our fiscal year 2007 Lost
Time Rate, Total Recordable Incident Rate, and Days, Away, Restricted, and Transfer Rate are restated
below to accurately reflect the data reported by this system.
2. Number of work-related injury and illnesses that result in one or more days away from work per 100
Team Members.
3. Number of work-related injury and illnesses per 100 Team Members.
4. Number of work-related injuries and illnesses resulting in a Team Member missing work, having
restricted work activity, or being transferred from their regular work assignment per 100 Team Members.
5. The formula components are weighted such that workers compensation costs contributes 50
percent, Total Recordable Incident Rate contributes 10 percent, and Days Away, Restricted, and Transfer
Rate contributes 40 percent to the total safety metric.
By placing greater emphasis on the factors

contributing to these rates, we have been able
to identify key opportunities for improving
our health and safety performance on a sitespecific basis. During fiscal year 2009, we
established special emphasis teams to conduct
on-site reviews at 10 facilities that held higher
than average workers compensation costs
and injury and illness rates. These teams
collaborated with facility management to
develop long-term site-specific action plans
designed to reduce workers compensation
claim costs, OSHA incident rates, and safety
scores.
Although improvements have been made, we
recognize work-related incidents can still occur.
During fiscal years 2008 and 2009, the company
experienced two work-related fatalities.
Additionally, in June 2009, the U.S. District
Court in Arkansas sentenced the company to
pay a criminal fine for willfully violating worker
safety regulations that led to a Team Members
death in 2003 at our River Valley Animal Food
plant in Texarkana, Arkansas. We were ordered
to pay $500,000 as well as serve one-year
probation. We regret these unfortunate events
and are working to prevent similar incidents in
the future.
Awards and Recognitions

In fiscal year 2008, we implemented a new
award process to recognize facilities with
outstanding health and safety performance.
We believe this new awards program is more
meaningful, efficient, and cost effective.
Historically, our injury and illness rates have
been above the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) industry rate. Accordingly, we established
award criteria to bring awareness to this issue,
to drive continual improvement, and to recognize
those facilities that are making significant
reductions in these rates. Under the new
process, there are three award opportunities:
Injury Free Workplace Award This award is
given to facilities with a Safety Metric Score
of zero for a fiscal year.
Platinum Safety Award This award is given
to the facility with the lowest Safety Metric
Score within one of nine given categories.
Gold Safety Award This award is given
to any facility meeting or exceeding the
following:
A Total OSHA Recordable Rate which is

25 percent below the BLS industry rate;
and
A Days Away Restricted Transfer Rate
which is 25 percent below the BLS
industry rate.
During fiscal year 2008, we awarded 40 facilities
the Injury Free Workplace Award, nine the
Platinum Safety Award, and 15 facilities the Gold
Safety Award. In fiscal year 2009, 49 facilities
received Injury Free Workplace Award, nine the
Platinum Safety Award, and 17
received the Gold Safety Award.
In addition to our new award process, we
continue to encourage our facilities to apply for
federal, state, and local safety awards as well
as awards from trade organizations. In fiscal
year 2008, 12 facilities received Corporate
Safety Awards from the National Safety Council
of the Ozarks. During fiscal years 2008 and
2009, 12 facilities received a Worker Safety
Recognition Award from the American Meat
Institute.
Safety Metric Score below:

700 for Beef & Pork Slaughtering
and Processing;
300 for Poultry Slaughtering and
Processing;

250 for Meat Processing;
250 for Rendering;
250 for Small Production Operations;
3.4 HUNGER RELIEF

Hunger relief is Tyson Foods primary
philanthropic focus (hungerrelief.tyson.com).
Since 2000, we have donated more than 71
million pounds of protein to food banks and
hunger agencies across the United States.
Powering the Spirit to

End Childhood Hunger.
In 2006, Tyson Foods
created a branded,
internal fundraising
effort, Powering the Spirit, in partnership
with Share Our Strength to engage Team
Members in raising funds for hunger relief
in their local communities. The program
has three components:
wars involving more than 65 teams from the

Cedar Valley community raising more than
$34,000 for the Northeast Iowa Food Bank
and The Salvation Army over three years for
this event.
o Local fundraising through cooking and

grilling events;
o Sales of a specially produced Tyson
Foods cookbook featuring recipes from the
kitchens of Team Members nationwide; and
In addition to significant product donations to

food banks, Tyson Foods partners nationally
with two domestic hunger relief organizations:
Share Our Strength (strength.org) and Feeding
America (feedingamerica.org). In May 2006,
Tyson Foods pledged to donate 10 million
pounds of food to Feeding Americas 200
member food banks over a three-year period.
We surpassed our pledge in half the time and
we continue to donate food to this day.
Beyond our corporate contributions to end hunger,
our Team Members, communities, customers,
and suppliers work to have a meaningful impact
on hunger in the United States. Below are a few
examples of these efforts.
o A donation of 75 percent of the proceeds

of those fundraising efforts to hunger relief
in the communities in which the money was
raised.
Through Powering the Spirit, our Team
Members raised nearly $400,000 over the past
four years. Nearly 400 Tyson Foods Team
Members participated in this program in 2009.
Teaming Up to Fight Hunger in Iowa. Tyson
Foods Team Members from all Iowa plants,
two plants in Nebraska, and one plant in
Illinois joined Tyson Foods corporate
community relations staff in 2007, 2008 and
2009 to raise funds for Iowa community
agencies during the Des Moines Registers
Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa,
RAGBRAI. Together, they have raised more
than $80,805 for childhood hunger relief in
the communities where money was raised.
Separately, the Tyson Foods Waterloo Iowa
Complex organized and held three tug of
Student Food Drive

Program. In an effort
to create the next
generation of hunger
fighters in the U.S.,
Tyson Foods
sponsored a pilot
Student Food Drive program in 18
communities throughout 2007, 2008,
and 2009. Conducted in partnership with
Feeding America food banks, the program
helped collect more than three million
pounds of food using high school students
in those communities. More importantly, it
provided leadership training and an up-front
introduction to the issue of hunger to tens
of thousands of potential new stakeholders
in the fight against hunger.
Building Hunger Awareness. Another
critical component of Tyson Foods hunger
relief strategy is use of resources toward
creating awareness and engagement in the
issue of hunger. These resources include
food, money, transportation resources,
volunteer time, and community influence.
For example:
o Tyson Foods has a
long-standing, valued
relationship with the
League of United Latin
American Citizens
(www.lulac.org), which
broadened in recent
years to include a
collaboration addressing hunger in which
in-kind donations were made to 15
communities with significant Hispanic
populations.
o Since 2003, Tyson Foods has partnered
with Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (www.hbcu.com), making food
donations in communities in which Fall
Football Classics are played. Our fiscal year
2008 and 2009 communities included
Memphis, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Orlando,
and Greensboro, North Carolina.
o For five years, Tyson Foods has worked with

a group of influential business leaders from
the national organization Lift Up
America (www.liftupamerica.org) to make
food donations in cities across the U.S.
The company teamed with professional and
college athletic teams, including the Miami
Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs, Phoenix Suns,
Cleveland Indians, Detroit Lions, San Diego
Chargers, Texas Longhorns, and Arkansas
Razorbacks to distribute food and create
awareness about hunger in their communities
in 2008 and 2009.

o Another component of the hunger relief

efforts includes the Tyson Foods Hunger
All-Stars program, in which people
contributing to the fight against hunger in
their own communities are recognized on
the Hunger Relief site. In the past eighteen
months, more than 85 Tyson Foods Hunger
All-Stars have been recognized on the site.
Each month, the company donates a truckload of food to the Tyson Foods Hunger
All-Star of the Month. There are some
inspiring stories on the site, including one of
a 13-year-old in Oklahoma who raised more
than $20,000 for his local food bank, and
an 85-year-old woman in Washington, D.C.,
who has run a food pantry for more than
40 years.
o Tyson Foods has been innovative in its

use of social media for creating awareness
around the issue of hunger and those
engaged in hunger relief. The companys
hunger relief Web site and blog
(hungerrelief.tyson.com) began publishing in
early 2008, shortly thereafter complemented
by a widely followed Twitter account, and
video and image sharing on YouTube and
Flickr. A post describing hunger in the San
Francisco Bay Area generated more than
2,100 comments.
Sustainable Steps toward Solutions to Hunger and Poverty.

At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, 189 heads
of state committed their nations to a global partnership to reduce
extreme poverty by 2015 through a series of goals known as the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG). These goals address extreme
poverty, including income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate
shelter, and exclusion. Moreover, the goals
promote gender equality, environmental
sustainability, and basic human rights related
to health, education, shelter, and security.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the MDG.
To take these ideas from concept to practice, Tyson is supporting a

Rwandan-based company, Ikiraro Investments, in a project aimed at easing
the hunger for the local people of Musanze in Rwanda. While Tyson
Foods has no financial investment in Ikiraro or the project, it is supplying
technical expertise in poultry production and husbandry to enable
Rwandans to become more knowledgeable and
self-sufficient in the production of food. The company
believes educational intervention is a practical,
long-term initiative to help ease the hunger concerns
evident in Rwanda.
The eighth goal calls for global partnership between public and private
sectors to achieve development objectives set forth. In support of this
goal, Tyson Foods has collaborated with Millennium Promise, a nonprofit
organization supporting the achievement of the MDG, to create sustainable
food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa through technical philanthropy. Tyson
Foods has the technical expertise to build poultry enterprises and, by
applying the teach a man to fish principle, the opportunity to teach
individuals the technical skills needed to provide a sustainable food and
income source.
Specifically, Tyson Foods will provide periodic visits with on-the-ground

technical experts to the people of Musanze to teach them how to raise
poultry and build a successful poultry enterprise. These businesses are
not and will not be owned by Tyson Foods. The goal of this technical
philanthropy is to give the residents of these villages the skills to own
and manage a poultry business. Additionally, we are hopeful this
sustainable development initiative will enable villages in Sub-Saharan
Africa to improve their income through the sale of eggs and meat, as
well as develop a school meal program to improve nutrition by increasing
childrens protein consumption. CLICK HERE to learn more about
Millennium Promise.
3.5 CHARITABLE GIVING
As a company committed to creating value

for our shareholders, our customers and our
people, we also strive to give back to the
communities where we live, work and sell our
products. With a corporate philanthropic focus
of hunger relief, Tyson Foods has become the
leading private sector meat protein donor in
the United States, providing over 9.5 million
pounds of products in both 2008 and 2009 to
food banks and hunger relief organizations.
Additionally, our community outreach donations
in our areas of operations provide millions of
dollars annually to a host of causes. For example,
we provided more than $1.4 million dollars in
installment contributions throughout our
communities of operation in fiscal years 2008
and 2009 for various bricks and mortar
building and renovation campaigns. These
donations encompassed a wide variety of
projects, including new or renovated facilities
for children and family shelters, hospitals,
libraries, community parks and recreation
centers, food banks, and a state-of-the art
events center in Sioux City, Iowa. Our $1.4
million dollar contributions represent installment
payments for numerous multi-year pledges,
all totaling more than $6 million dollars in
investments in the communities where our
Team Members live and work.
Combining these product and monetary
donations, we donated over 10 percent of our
companys pre-tax profits in fiscal 2008, well
above the average for corporate giving
in America.
Supporting Education
Tyson Foods cares about education in our
communities and across the country. We sponsor
and support numerous programs and organizations
dedicated to improving our nations educational
systems, such as Students in Free Enterprise,
Junior Achievement, Historically Black Colleges
and Universities Classic sponsorships, public
library funds, and monetary and in-kind donations
to secondary and post-secondary institutions.
We also provide support to numerous scholarship
funds, including national Future Farmers of
America, League of United Latin American
Citizens, Hispanic Womens Organization, United
Negro College Fund, single parent and independent
scholarship associations, and donations to
various university scholarship programs.
and others in the community clip and save

labels from Tyson products featuring the Tyson
Project A+ logo. The labels are collected, and
the school can redeem them for cash from
Tyson Foods. A total of $248,000 dollars was
donated to schools through this program
during fiscal years 2008 and 2009.
Strategic Community Involvement Plans
We believe one of the most important things we
can do for communities in which Tyson Foods
has operations is ensure our Team Members
are involved in activities vital to the communities.
Our community relations managers, working
alongside corporate Human Resources and
operations managers, have collaborated to
create strategic plans to engage local managers
and Team Members in these activities. Plans,
custom-tailored to the needs and opportunities
in individual communities, were written specifically
for all 89 operations locations in fiscal year
2008 and 2009. The plans encourage relationship
building with and assistance to local education,
government, business, non-profit, public
protection, and diversity organizations.
Donations and Community Outreach
Tyson Project A+
Through the Tyson Project A+
program, schools can earn extra
money. The money may be used
in any way the school chooses.
Parents, students, faculty members,
In fiscal years 2008 and 2009, we donated

over $5.9 million to charities and nonprofit
organizations, primarily in communities in
which we have operating facilities. These
contributions ranged from sponsorships and
support of various nonprofit fundraisers and
campaigns to monetary and product donations
for our local schools and grass roots community
efforts for education, health and human services,
families, and the environment. This does not

include contributions made by individual
company facilities or Team Members.
We are also a major
contributor to United
Way campaigns.
Our combined Team
Member and company commitments for fiscal
years 2008 and 2009 were approximately
$3.6 million. Corporate donations supported
hundreds of charities with 135 organizations
receiving at least $10,000 or more. As an
example, in 2008 we committed $150,000 to
Seven Hills Homeless Shelter in Fayetteville,
Arkansas, to help establish a much needed
transitional living facility, and in 2009 pledged
$100,000 to the Northeast Iowa Food Banks
capital campaign to expand services. Other
recipients of significant donations are listed to
the right.
In addition to corporate donations, many
company facilities raise money and donate
to organizations and associations in their
community. A few examples of these efforts
are shared below.
In May 2009, Team Members from our
Albertville, Alabama, location raised $40,600
for the American Cancer Society as a part of
their Relay for Life events. This is the third
year in a row Tyson Foods has been the top
fund-raiser in the county.
In fiscal year 2009, the Tyson Foods Forest,
Mississippi Team Members raised more
than $60,000 in their local Relay for Life
efforts.
In The Wake of Disaster

Numerous disaster relief organizations and
communities depend upon the support of
Tyson Foods in the wake of disasters such as
wildfires in Southern California, flooding in the
Midwest and hurricanes in the Gulf. In fact, our
Team Members have become very well known
among national disaster relief organizations for
being on the scene early after a disaster strikes
and feeding hundreds of hungry workers and
disaster victims in the midst of their efforts.
In February 2008, Team Members from our

Shelbyville and Goodlettsville, Tennessee
facilities teamed up to assist relief efforts in
Lafayette, Tennessee, following devastating
tornados. The locations prepared
approximately 300 hot food plates that were
distributed in the area. Along with other side
items, the Goodlettsville team supplied beef
and the Shelbyville team provided chicken
for the meals.
After Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in September
of 2008, Tyson sent 26 truckloads of food to
the Gulf area to help in recovery efforts.
Tyson Foods assisted many Team Members

who endured dangerous conditions after ice
storms devastated parts of Northwest Arkansas,
Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee in January
2009. More than 200,000 pounds of food was
provided to Team Members and local food
banks to help those who were stranded in their
homes without power or forced to stay at shelters
to avoid the cold temperatures in homes
temporarily without heat or damaged by falling
trees and limbs.
4.0 PLANET
Conservation, pollution prevention, and
stewardship are some of the terms we
use to describe our responsibility for and
commitment to protecting and respecting the
environment. At Tyson Foods, we endeavor
to operate our business in an environmentally
responsible manner while minimizing our
environmental footprint.
For Tyson Foods, protecting the environment
is about more than maintaining compliance
with the environmental laws and regulations
applicable to our operations. Its about embracing
a process of continual improvement aimed at
protecting the environment for future generations.
This includes, but is not limited to:
Tracking key environmental performance

indicators;
Identifying and implementing opportunities
to reduce the amount of water used in our
production processes without compromising
product safety and integrity;
Properly operating and maintaining our
wastewater treatment facilities;
Reducing the amount of landfill waste
through recycling efforts;
Relating our carbon footprint to our
business strategy and identifying
opportunities and possible initiatives to
reduce our greenhouse gas emissions; and
Evaluating new technologies that offer

alternative fuels, reduce packaging waste,
reduce the number of trucks on the road,
and conserve energy.
As stated in our Core Values, We serve as
stewards of the animals, land, and environment
entrusted to us. Environmental protection
and resource conservation are responsibilities
we take seriously and consider crucial
components to conducting our business in
a sustainable manner.
4.1 OUR ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH, AND SAFETY POLICY

With our Core Values as our foundation, it is Tyson Foods policy to
conduct business in a safe, responsible manner with respect for the
environment and for the well-being of our Team Members, customers,
and neighboring communities. We believe that conserving and protecting
natural resources is essential to our companys sustainability as well as
the future of the world. We believe that our Team Members, contractors,
and visitors have the right to work in a safe environment.
It is both the individual and collective responsibility of all Tyson Foods
locations and Team Members to understand, promote, and assist with
the implementation of this policy and its accompanying principles.
Our Guiding Principles

We strive to maintain safe and healthy work environments that enable
our Team Members to work free of occupational injury and illness.
We endeavor to operate our business in an environmentally responsible
manner while minimizing our environmental footprint.
We are committed to compliance with the Environmental, Health, and
Safety (EHS) regulations and other requirements applicable to our
operations, and we set higher standards for ourselves if unacceptable
risks are identified.
We set goals to eliminate injuries and illnesses, to prevent pollution,
and to conserve resources, and we regularly monitor and measure
our EHS performance toward meeting these goals.
We work together, across all levels of our organization, to drive the
continual improvement of our EHS Management System and EHS
performance.
We foster open communication with our Team Members, contractors,
and suppliers to ensure they are aware of their EHS roles and
responsibilities, and we hold them accountable for conforming to
the commitments of our EHS Policy and the requirements of our
EHS Management System.
4.2 OUR ENVIRONMENTAL TEAM

Members of our Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Services
department develop and administer our environmental protection and
resource conservation programs. This includes Team Members serving
in key environmental roles at both the corporate and processing-plant
locations. Corporate-based environmental professionals report to our
Senior Vice President and Chief Environmental, Health and Safety Officer.
Environmental professionals based at our processing plants report to
their facilities management teams with a dotted line of reporting to our
corporate EHS organization.
Working in partnership, these professionals provide oversight for a variety

programs, such as air permit compliance, risk management planning,
routine chemical reporting, solid and hazardous waste management,
storm water pollution prevention, spill prevention, and wastewater
treatment and discharge. Additionally, these professionals:
Establish clear roles and responsibilities for managing environmental
compliance;
Provide environmental training to hourly, management support,
and management Team Members;
Participate in the development of local, state, and federal
environmental programs, standards, and regulations;
Evaluate new and emerging environmental technologies and
programs; and
Drive continual improvement with an emphasis on pollution
prevention, conservation, recycling, and operational efficiency.
4.3 OUR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

As of December 2008, all Tyson Foods facilities
in the United States and Mexico have
implemented Environmental, Health, and Safety
Management Systems. The environmental
portion of this system fulfills the requirements
set forth in International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) 14001. As such, each
facility has developed and implemented
procedures and controls that align with the
requirements of 14001 including, but not
limited to:
The identification and control of significant
environmental aspects;
Communication;
Document and record control;
Compliance management; and
Emergency preparedness and response.
An important component of this system is

the requirement for facilities to systematically
identify the root cause of an environmental
noncompliance event, propose appropriate
corrective and preventative actions to address
the noncompliance, and track and manage
these actions to ensure their effectiveness in
preventing the reoccurrence of any potential
noncompliance activity. This process not only
improves our ability to identify the cause of
an issue, but also our ability to ensure that
corrective actions eliminate the cause of the
issue at its source.
Another key element of this system is annual

management reviews. These reviews, conducted
by a facilitys management team, evaluate
whether a facilitys system is producing the
desired results. These reviews provide facility
management teams with an opportunity to step
back from the day-to-day implementation of
the system and evaluate its performance for
the purpose of updating procedures, objectives,
and other elements of the system to drive
continual improvement.
We believe the implementation of this system
is fundamental to successful, proactive
environmental management. Additionally, we
believe our management system will help
ensure the sustainable future of our company,
the environment, and our natural resources.
4.4 AUDITING OUR PERFORMANCE

Tyson Foods Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Audit Program is
an essential component of our business practices and commitment to
continual improvement. The program serves to:
Provide assurance to management that applicable EHS regulations
and company standards are being implemented as intended;
Provide site management with recommendations to correct any
nonconformance and aid in management system and program
improvements;
Enhance Team Member awareness and understanding of their EHS
roles and responsibilities; and
Provide audit information and data analysis to our EHS management
team.
To ensure these objectives are fulfilled, we implement our EHS Audit
Program in accordance with the following three-tier process.
Tier I: Facility-Led EHS Audits
Facility-led EHS audits provide for the early recognition and management
of EHS hazards, build ownership and confidence in EHS compliance,
and increase EHS awareness and responsibility. These audits involve
facility management teams conducting routine checks of EHS operations
to ensure program elements and standards are being fulfilled. In addition,
these audits provide a timelier picture of compliance than annual audits
alone and assist facility managers in identifying EHS trends and responding
to deficiencies in a timely manner.
Tier II: Annual Compliance Audits

Company EHS professionals conduct compliance audits annually in each
major facility. Processing facilities, tannery operations, and feed mills
are considered major facilities. All other facilities are audited every three
years. These audits focus on a plants implementation and conformance
with company standards and applicable environmental regulations and
permit requirements. These audits also include facility walk-around
inspections; record keeping and documentation reviews; and evaluations
of data and reports for trending and performance indications. During
fiscal years 2008 and 2009, our corporate environmental professionals
conducted 360 environmental audits at our facilities.
Tier III: Quality Assurance Audits
Our EHS audit manager performs eight quality-assurance audits annually.
This manager is independent of the facilities audited, and performs these
audits at random processing facilities. Along with the value and integrity
of the companys environmental audit process, these audits ensure
corporate environmental goals are being met. In fiscal year 2010, we
will be revising our quality-assurance audit approach to be more focused
on ensuring conformance with our management system standards,
procedures, and goals.
4.5 DATA COLLECTION AND ASSURANCE

In fiscal year 2008, we completed an extensive
review of our environmental, health, and safety
performance data and systems. The objectives
of this review were twofold: first, to identify
important data points not being collected
and monitored, and second, to evaluate data
currently being collected with emphasis on the
process for collecting and verifying the data,
determining how reports were compiled, and
the process for delivering reports to internal
customers.
From this review, we identified several key

opportunities to improve process efficiency.
For example, we developed a Web-based
incident reporting tool capable of collecting
data related to environmental spills and
releases, exceedances, notices of violation,
and regulatory inspections. This tool allows us
to make the appropriate internal notifications
and establish corrective action measures, and
includes a quality assurance mechanism that
helps ensure the accuracy of the details
surrounding an incident for the purpose of

reporting and analyzing trends. Additionally,
we are working on enhancements related to
our data systems for water, solid waste, special
waste, and recycling.
4.6 MANAGING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT

Tyson Foods main environmental footprint
areas include water, air, carbon, energy use,
solid waste, packaging, and sustainable
agriculture. The sections that follow review our
management approach to each of these impact
areas as well as our performance data for these
areas during fiscal years 2008 and 2009.
Protecting and Conserving Water
Tyson Foods understands the importance of
water in our everyday lives and our responsibility
for protecting water quality. Our poultry, beef,
and pork processing plants used approximately
25.5 billion gallons of water in fiscal year 2009
to produce food products and ensure the
cleanliness of their facilities. At this time, we
have not included water usage data related to
our prepared food processing plants; however,
efforts are underway to begin collecting and
reporting this data.
We are committed to protecting the water

bodies that we discharge to as evidenced by
the results of our water quality performance
data. We operate 34 full-treatment and 42
pretreatment wastewater facilities in North
America. In addition to establishing electronic

tools that enable our facilities to proactively
monitor the performance of their treatment
systems, our long-term goal is to eliminate
Notices of Violations (NOVs) and permit
exceedances. From the end of fiscal year
2007 to the end of fiscal year 2009, the
company reduced its wastewater related
permit exceedances by 5.4 percent.
During this time frame, however, the companys
NOVs related to wastewater, storm water, and
drinking water increased by 51.9 percent. Two
of our pre-treatment wastewater facilities
accounted for 55 percent of the total NOVs
we received in fiscal year 2008 and 61 percent
of the NOVs received during fiscal year 2009.
We have evaluated these facilities and their
permit conditions and treatment process for
opportunities to improve upon their operations
and ensure their compliance.
We are pleased with the water conservation

efforts made and the results achieved so far.
Our water conservation efforts, along with
several facility closures, have led to a water
usage reduction of 7.6 percent since October
2004, which is equivalent to a 13.9-percent
reduction in the number of gallons used per
pound of finished product. To ensure continual
improvement, the company has set a goal to
reduce water consumption by 10 percent over
a two-year period, as compared to its water
usage levels at the end of fiscal year 2008. As a
requirement of the companys Environmental,
Health, and Safety Management System
Standards, any facility in the United States or
Mexico that uses more than one million gallons
of water per week must document and implement
a Water Conservation Plan that sets forth a
goal for water reduction and a timeframe for
achieving that goal.
Water conservation has been an important area

of focus for Tyson Foods for many years. We
employ programs and technologies, such as
best management practices, water reclamation
systems, and Team Member education, to
conserve and reuse this natural resource. Our
first priority is to ensure the wholesomeness
and safety of our food products. Water use is
critical to the cleanliness of facilities and for
ensuring the safety of our products; its use is
mandated by the government. We recognize
the important balance between protecting
product quality and conserving a natural
resource. Accordingly, we will never reduce
water usage in situations where food safety
and quality could be compromised.
Below, we provide insight into our management

approach regarding some of the most common
water quality and conservation questions or
concerns raised by our stakeholders.
Oklahoma Watershed - Tyson Foods and several
other poultry companies are currently defendants
in a lawsuit filed by the Oklahoma attorney
general alleging pollution of the Illinois River
Watershed. The suit, filed in June 2005, alleged
the practice of using chicken litter as fertilizer in
the Illinois watershed posed a significant threat
to the environment and human health, and the
poultry companies treatment of poultry litter
violated the states environmental standards.
In 2008, the federal judge in the case denied
the attorney generals request for a preliminary
injunction to stop the use of poultry litter in the
watershed, finding that the state of Oklahoma
had failed to prove that bacteria in the river

could be linked to poultry litter. Recently, in
July 2009, the judge dismissed the damages
component of the states case. Tyson Foods
continually and vigorously denies the
allegations made in the case.
Maintaining Air Quality and Managing
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The primary air emissions managed by Tyson
Foods operations include:
for our U.S.-based operations as a component

of the ongoing process of managing air permits
and operational changes.
In November, 2004 Tyson Foods became a
partner in the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) Climate LeadersTM program, a
voluntary partnership challenging businesses to
reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Climate Leaders work collaboratively with EPA
to:
Particulate matter, particulate matter of

2.5 micrometers or smaller, and particulate
matter of 10 micrometers or smaller (PM 10)
from operations such as feed milling and
cooking;
Develop a corporate-wide GHG inventory;
Sulfur oxides, nitrogen dioxide, carbon

monoxide, and PM10 emissions from the
combustion of fossil fuels; and
Annually report GHG inventory data and

progress toward goals; and
Volatile organic carbon emissions that may

result from fryer operations.
In the United States, air emissions are regulated
by various federal, state, and local environmental
agencies. Our compliance with these regulations
is verified through annual emissions inventories,
annual and semi-annual emission compliance
certifications, sampling, periodic state agency
audits, and internal compliance monitoring
systems.
Our air emissions management approach
also includes the implementation of pollution
prevention programs, the installation of pollution
control equipment, and investment in air
emission control technologies, as needed. We
have completed a potential-to-emit inventory
Set aggressive GHG emission reduction

goals for the next 5 to 10 years;
Implement a GHG inventory and reduction
management plan;
Publicize their participation, reduction

pledges, and accomplishments.
Tyson Foods completed its corporate-wide
GHG inventory in accordance with the Climate
Leaders Greenhouse Gas Inventory Protocol.
This inventory includes GHG emissions from
our U.S. chicken, beef, pork, and prepared
foods operations as well as our hog buying
stations and transportation operations.
Additionally, it includes information from our
U.S. based Cobb Vantress and Pork Group
subsidiaries.
Our GHG footprint during calendar year 2004
was 5.35 million metric tons. This baseline
inventory includes data related to facility fuel
and electricity usage, transportation fuels,
refrigeration usage, and anaerobic biogas
production. Based on this inventory, the

company is evaluating setting GHG emission
reduction goals in fiscal year 2010.
We recognize our company faces potential
risks due to physical changes associated with
extreme weather conditions such as droughts,
floods, excessive heat or cold, hurricanes, and
ice and snow storms. These conditions can
impact the health and growth of livestock and
result in operational disruptions. We also
recognize investing in energy-efficient projects
and programs can improve our bottom line

performance. In light of the current uncertainty
surrounding the legislative and scientific
discussions related to climate change, however,
we may choose to delay our decision on goal
setting in order to better understand the future
legal landscape and role of carbon in the
economy as well as its potential financial
implications on our company.
We also became a partner in the EPA SmartWay
Transport Partnership in 2004. The SmartWay
partnership is a voluntary environmental and
energy conservation program
for companies that ship and
haul freight. In 2006, we
expanded our involvement
in this program, and gained
national status and recognition
from the EPA as an authorized
shipper/carrier partner. At the
time this status was achieved,
we were one of only seven
companies to be recognized
as both a shipper and carrier
partner.
SmartWay Partners are
committed to reducing GHG
emissions, air pollution, and
fuel usage in transportation
fleets. To fulfill this commitment,
we have undertaken initiatives
related to reduced transportation
miles, increased railway usage, low-emission

engines, single-wide tires, aerodynamic packages,
tare weight reduction, auxiliary power units,
low-friction drive-train lubricants, and recruiting
SmartWay Carrier Partners. The table highlights
our progress in some of these areas.
Below we provide insight into our management
approach regarding some of the most common
air quality and GHG emission questions or
concerns raised by our stakeholders.
Tyson Foods Position on the Carbon
Disclosure Project
For the past several years, the Carbon Disclosure
Project (CDP) has requested Tyson Foods
disclosure of climate change related information.
We have reviewed the CDP process, format,
and information requirements and, at this
time, have decided to communicate our GHG
information through alternative but equally
effective means rather than participate in the CDP.
There are several reasons for Tyson Foods
approach to communication regarding GHG
information. First, we believe it is unnecessary
to commit the additional resources required to
annually report our information under CDPs
unique format. Second, we prefer to continue
working with EPA regarding GHG inventory
information because of the Agencys expertise
and long-term management responsibility for
climate change. Third, we have reported our
GHG emissions summary in our sustainability
report, which is publicly available.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Livestock

Production
In the fall of 2009, an investment research firm
providing management tools to professionals
integrating environmental, social, and governance
factors into their investment decisions released
a report claiming Tyson Foods livestock
operations generate substantial emissions of
methane gas (CH4). This report stated methane
gas is produced from the fermenting of animal
waste and manure-holding lagoons and cited a
November 2006 report from the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization that claimed
livestock production accounts for 18 percent of
global carbon dioxide emissions and between
40 and 60 percent of global methane and
nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions.
According to the 2009 U.S. Greenhouse Gas
Inventory Report from the Environmental
Protection Agency, manure management
accounted for 4.7 percent of N2O and 7.5
percent of CH4 emissions in the U.S. during the
2007 reporting year. This report is available on
the EPAs Web site. To view the report, CLICK
HERE. Tyson Foods does not own cattle feed
lots or confinement areas, nor does it manage
cattle. The company has a small number of
company-owned swine farms, accounting for
raising less than one-percent of the swine it
processes at its pork production plants. In
addition, Tyson Foods owns around 20 poultry
farms and contracts with approximately 6,000
independent poultry producers, who manage
their own poultry litter. Tyson Foods poultry
farms do not utilize lagoons to store chicken
litter, which is primarily composed of chicken
droppings and bedding materials, such as rice

hulls. Accordingly, Tyson Foods management
of manure and animal-waste lagoons results in
a small GHG footprint.
Energy Usage and Conservation
Energy use in Tyson Foods production facilities
is the companys first and second largest
source of GHG emissions. Our main source of
energy is electricity, which represented 49.8
percent of our total GHG emissions during
fiscal years 2004 through 2008. We use electricity
to power processing, refrigeration, and wastewater treatment equipment, and for lighting,
heating, and air conditioning. In addition, many
of our facilities use natural gas in boilers to heat
water and in fryers and ovens to cook our food
products. The combustion of natural gas
represented 26.7 percent of our total GHG
emissions during fiscal years 2004 through
2008.
Energy-efficiency projects reduce both costs
and associated GHG emissions. Below are
examples of energy conservation efforts
underway at Tyson Foods.
Tyson Foods operates renewable energy
processes and researches new and evolving
technologies to create renewable energy.
For example, we have six wastewater treatment
systems that have enclosed their anaerobic
lagoons in order to generate and capture
biogas. Biogas is naturally produced during
the decomposition of organic matter in
these anaerobic systems. Four of these six
facilities, are able to clean and use their
biogas as an alternative fuel source to
natural gas in on-site boilers. According

to data collected from the U.S. Energy
Information Administration, the average
monthly industrial natural gas price from
January 2001 to September 2009 was $6.75
per thousand cubic feet. During fiscal years
2008 and 2009, these four facilities used
more than 1.8 billion cubic feet of biogas in
on-site boilers. For these two fiscal years,
this is equivalent to 1.3 billion cubic feet of
natural gas and a natural gas cost avoidance
of approximately $9.1 million dollars. In an
effort to minimize energy costs, reduce GHG
emissions, and utilize alternative energy
sources, we are evaluating additional
opportunities to capture and use biogas at
other processing facilities.
In fiscal year 2008, Tyson Foods began testing
a renewable energy process at its feed mill
in Fairmount, Georgia. This process, known
as a biomass gasification technology, is
designed specifically for poultry litter and
other hard-to-process materials. The testing
period lasted eight months and converted
nearly 1,000 tons of poultry litter to 110-psig
(pounds-per-square-inch gauge) steam. It
supplied an estimated 30 percent of the feed
mills steam needs. The test is considered
an operational success, achieving sustained
gasification over extended periods and
excellent results on stack emissions from
the process. Tyson Foods continues to
evaluate opportunities to install a scaled up
version of this process at other company
locations.
Tyson Foods implemented a server

virtualization and consolidation effort within
its Information Technology Infrastructure
Group several years ago. Virtualization is
a method of running multiple operating
systems on a single computer. One of the
many benefits of virtualization is reduced
energy consumption for powering the
computers and cooling the area in which
the servers are stored. To date, Tyson
Foods efforts around server virtualization
and consolidation have reduced server
storage space by approximately 400 square
feet, the number of servers from 483 to 37,
physical server racks by 18, and network
ports and cables by 268.
Our Information Technology department
also began offering Liquid Crystal Display
(LCD) monitors as an alternative to Cathode
Ray Tube (CRT) monitors in August 2005.
The advantages of LCD monitors over CRT
monitors equate to approximately $110
annual savings per monitor in energy use.
Additionally, LCDs are emission free, pose
less of a fire risk, and use lower amounts of
environmentally sensitive materials such as
lead and calcium.
We rely on green design and renovation to
increase energy efficiency. For example, our
new office building and Discovery Center,
constructed in 2007 at our World Headquarters
in Springdale, Arkansas, received energy
efficient lighting when built. The remainder
of our office buildings at World Headquarters
will receive energy efficient lighting as
renovations occur or as replacements are
needed. We are also installing timers that

automatically turn off lights during nonworking hours. This not only helps eliminate
light pollution to the outside but also
conserves energy. Additionally, during the
winter of 2009, we moved our heat setpoints at World Headquarters to 68F. By
dropping and maintaining these set-points,
we reduced our overall natural gas usage
by approximately 30 percent as compared
to the same three-month period in 2008.
of landfill solid waste in fiscal year 2008 and

143,564 tons in fiscal year 2009, representing
a 12.5 percent decrease from 2008 to 2009.
We recycled 31,080 tons of OCC and plastics
during fiscal year 2008 and 29,615 tons during
fiscal year 2009, a 4.7 percent decrease from
2008 to 2009.
Solid Waste Management and Recycling

Tyson Foods operations generate mostly nonhazardous solid waste, consisting of paper,
plastics, scrap metals, used oils, food wastes,
wooden pallets, protein by-products, and old
corrugated containers (OCC). As stated in our
EHS Policy, we are committed to managing our
operations in an environmentally responsible
manner with emphasis on pollution prevention,
conservation, recycling, and operational
efficiency. While working to constantly find
alternative uses for wastes and by-products,
we promote consistent waste management
practices throughout our company. These
efforts aid in reducing the amount of waste
sent to landfills and reduce methane generation
which contributes to the generation of
greenhouse gas emissions.
Monitoring waste generation, disposal, and
reuse enables us to assess our progress and
continually improve our waste management
performance. Our goal is to reduce the amount
of waste we send to the landfill and to increase
the amount of materials recycled year-overyear. Tyson Foods generated 164,073 tons
We also maintain several types of recycling

programs at our World Headquarters in
Springdale, Arkansas.
From May 2008 through October 2009, we
recycled more than 150 tons of office waste,
including plastics, paper, cardboard, aluminum,
and other recyclables.
Our Information Systems department has an
agreement with a company that manages
the receipt, reuse, and if necessary, the
environmentally responsible disposal of
personal computers, laptops, monitors, fax
machines, copiers, cell phones, and other
types of electronic computer related assets.
During fiscal year 2009, we shipped more
than 37,000 pounds of bulk computer
equipment to this company for de-
manufacturing and reclamation of raw
materials. This includes approximately 820
monitors and 2,300 personal computers,
laptops, and servers, along with hundreds
of computer mice, keyboards, cables, racks,
and other miscellaneous equipment.
Through efforts such as electronic invoicing
and billing, consolidation of finance and
payroll applications, online availability
and archiving of reports, and the use of
microfiche, our Data Center Team has
implemented efforts that have reduced our
companys paper usage by approximately
40 percent since fiscal year 2005.
During fiscal year 2009, we used

8.9 million pooled CHEP pallets
for product shipment. The
environmental benefits of this
pooled approach include a solid
waste reduction of approximately
5 million pounds, an energy
savings of 109 billion BTUs, and
more than 3.8 million pounds of
GHG emissions.
Additionally, we seek to enter into relationships
with supply partners who share a similar
commitment to environmental protection,
resource conservation, and continual improvement.
In May 2008, we partnered with CHEP Equipment
Pooling Systems to begin transitioning our
shipping platform from a non-pooled pallet
approach to a pooled approach. CHEP is a
leader in pallet and container pooling services.
They issue, collect, condition, and reissue more
than 300 million pallets and containers from
global network of service centers. In addition
to reduced costs and enhanced operational
efficiencies, our partnership with CHEP helps
minimize our environmental footprint in the
following ways:
Pallets are constructed of lumber from
sustainably managed forests.
The pooling model encourages the repair
and reuse of pallets.
Broken or damaged components of pallets
are recycled.
Sustainable Packaging
An often-overlooked element of a food product is
its packaging. At Tyson Foods, our first packaging
priority is to ensure the wholesomeness, safety,
and shelf-life of our products. Our packaging
supply partners must meet or exceed the
safety regulations and standards applicable to
food-grade packaging. In addition, we require
annual third-party audits for our packaging
supply partners and letters of guarantee for the
products they supply to Tyson Foods.
We also recognize the importance of reducing
packaging waste as well as the use of nonrenewable materials in packaging content. Our
Packaging Applications Team, in collaboration
with packaging supply partners, is committed
to reducing the environmental impact of our
packaging while ensuring the safety of our
products. Below, we highlight other initiatives
we have implemented to reduce the environmental
impact of our packaging.
Corrugated Packaging
Flexible Packaging Efforts
Tyson Foods corrugated supply partner is a

member of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative
(SFI) program. SFI certification promotes
responsible forestry practices. To be certified,
forest operations must be audited against the
SFI forest standard. We use only SFI standard
certified corrugated packaging, and at least
94 percent of the boxes we use for product
shipment are recyclable.
The most recent changes we have made to

reduce the environmental impact of our flexible
packaging include optimizing resin (plastic) use
in all packaging and in some applications using
a new alternative filler substitution. By optimizing
the package attributes, we have eliminated
over four million pounds of resin since 2008.
This effort has also resulted in a reduction in
flexible packaging weight leading to less
packaging in transportation and disposal. The
most exciting of these efforts is the mineral
filler substitute for resin which is being used in
one of our retail packages. This filler is not a
petrochemical, thus reducing our reliance on
this resource by about 15-percent in this package.
This corrugated materials supplier also uses

the most current technology to replace oilbased wax in specific packaging applications.
Over the last several years, this replacement
process has helped us reduce wax-coated
boxes by 16 percent. Additionally, with the
assistance of this supplier, we have been able
to implement projects designed to reduce
fiber through a process called board grade
optimization. This process more closely
aligns the design of a corrugated box with the
performance needs of a product. To date, we
have removed over 4,000 tons of fiber through
board grade reduction in calendar year 2009.
Reduced Transportation through

Right Sizing
Our Packaging Applications Team, as part of
their regular duties, is constantly looking for
opportunities to identify alternative packaging
that achieves more efficient truck weights. We
have implemented several projects that focus
on right sizing boxes. These projects ensure
more boxes are on each pallet, thus allowing
us to reach optimum weight on our trucks and
reduce the number of trucks on the road.
4.7 ENVIRONMENTAL FINES AND PENALTIES

Tyson Foods incurred several environmental
penalties during fiscal years 2008 and 2009.
The largest amount paid by a single location
was a $2,026,500 civil penalty to settle
allegations that the Fresh Meats Division
violated terms of a 2002 consent decree and
a federally-issued pollution discharge permit
at its meat processing facility in Dakota City,
Nebraska. According to a filing made in U.S.
District Court in Omaha, the government
alleges that from July 2003 through March
2004, the Dakota City facility failed to properly
operate a nitrification system as required by the
2002 consent decree. When the company
became aware in 2003 that some treatment
plant processes were not performing as
intended, operational changes were made and
additional equipment and systems were added,
enabling the treatment system to

function consistently. In fact, during
the past nine years, approximately $27
million has been spent upgrading and
improving the wastewater treatment system
at Dakota City. This includes more than $4
million spent on modifications since 2003.
Tyson Fresh Meats worked cooperatively
with state and federal regulators concerning
wastewater issues that occurred years ago at
this facility. Those issues have been resolved
and the facilitys wastewater treatment system
is operating effectively.
entered into six consent agreements to address

specific environmental issues and paid $93,033
in penalties, in addition to the above-mentioned
penalty at a Nebraska location, during fiscal
years 2008 and 2009. Details surrounding
penalties greater than $5,000 incurred during
this time frame are provided below.
In addition, we reported 55 spills

(50 anhydrous ammonia, two
diesel fuel, two carbon dioxide,
and one ferric chloride) and

4.8 AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

Below are examples of both internal and
external environmental awards and recognitions
received by Tyson Foods during fiscal years
2008 and 2009.
Our Dawson, Georgia, poultry facility
received the Honorable Mention Award from
U.S. Poultry and Egg Associations 2008
Clean Water Award competition in the
pretreatment category.
In March 2008, Tyson Foods recognized
six locations for their environmental
performance by presenting them with a
Facility Environmental Stewardship award.
In May 2008, our Green Forest, Arkansas,
poultry facility was honored as one of five
finalists for the 2007 Arkansas Environmental
Stewardship Award, also known as the
ENVY Award.
The American Meat Institute (AMI) recognized
47 Tyson Foods facilities for their
environmental performance in fiscal year
2008 and 33 facilities in fiscal year 2009.
In April 2009, our Joslin, Illinois, beef facility
received the J. Edward Meers Industrial
Achievement Award for their wastewater
treatment efforts from the Illinois Association
of Water Pollution Control Operators and
the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
In May 2009, Alabamas Water Environment

Association awarded the Wastewater
Department at our Blountsville, Alabama,
poultry processing location the 2008
Excellence in Wastewater Treatment Award
Category 4 Biological Advanced Treatment.
Our World Headquarters in Springdale,
Arkansas, was named one of the areas
greenest offices by Arkansas Business in
August 2009.
In November 2009, our Lexington, Nebraska,
beef facility received the Scott Wilbur Award
and Gold Safety Award from Nebraska
Water Environment Association. This is the
sixth year in a row the facility has received
the Scott Wilbur Award and the fifth year
in a row the facility has received the Gold
Safety Award.
Our Dakota City, Nebraska, wastewater
treatment plant was also recognized by the
Nebraska Water Environment Association
in November 2009 with the Scott Wilbur
Award.
Our Prepared Foods facilities in Dallas and

Fort Worth, Texas, received wastewater
treatment awards in 2009. Dallas, for the
sixth year in a row, received the Blue Thumb
Award from the Dallas Water Department
for their wastewater treatment compliance,
and Fort Worth received the Pretreatment
Associates Award from Fort Worth for their
wastewater treatment compliance performance
from June 2007 through May 2009.
The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association chose
our Monett, Missouri, poultry facility as the
winner of its 2009 National Clean Water
Award in the pretreatment category. Also in
2009, Monett received their second platinum
and tenth gold award from the Missouri
Water Environmental Association for 100
percent industrial wastewater pretreatment
compliance.
In 2009, our Tyson de Mexico Popular Plant,

Citra Plant, and feed mill each received the
Certificacion Industrial Limpia (Clean
Industry Certification) award from the
Procuradura Federal de Proteccin al
Ambiente (Attorney General for Environmental
Protection) for their compliance with federal,
state, and municipal regulations.
5.0 PRODUCTS
Successful companies know their future
depends on providing the quality products
customers and consumers expect and deserve.
Tyson Foods has become a world power in
protein because of its strong belief in this
premise. The products we produce are secondto-none in food safety, quality, and variety.
Nothing is more important to our business than
maintaining the confidence customers and
consumers have in the Tyson brand.
Tyson Foods is committed to producing safe,

nutritious food products. We use state-of-theart food safety systems, provide education and
information that helps our customers and
consumers use our products safely, continuously
improve our product safety, and demand safe
raw materials and ingredients from our suppliers.
Our company is fully committed to our Core
Values statement, We feed our families, the
nation, and the world with trusted food products.
5.1 Managing Food Safety and Quality

Tyson Foods approach to food safety and
quality is comprehensive, preventive, and
proactive. We implement controls and measures
at every level to make sure our products are
second-to-none in food safety and quality.
We assess our products for improvement
during product research and development,
manufacturing and production, marketing and
promotion, storage and distribution, and use.
We believe this approach helps guarantee the
safety and quality of our products from the
farm all the way to the dinner table. Below are
examples of how this approach is implemented
throughout our company and its operations.
At the Farm
Ensuring the safety and quality of our food
products begins at the farm. Independent poultry
producers raise most of our chickens. We
provide producers with veterinary support,
nutritionally formulated feed, technical assistance,
and information on optimal lighting, ventilation,
and animal well-being. We also help them
implement strict biosecurity measures to
prevent the spread of disease among animals,
and we perform thousands of tests each week
to confirm the health of our animals, including
avian influenza testing of all chicken flocks prior
to transport to a processing facility.
We buy cattle and hogs on the open market
from independent livestock producers. To
ensure the safety and quality of our products,
we work with industry associations to develop
standards for the raising of these animals.
As an example, in June 2009, we endorsed
the National Pork Boards and National Pork

Producers Councils We Care Program. This
program formalizes and verifies pork industry
efforts to operate in a responsible and ethical
manner concerning the environment, public
health, employee care, and community relations.
This initiative also involves the Pork Quality
Assurance Plus (PQA Plus) program, which
provides pork producers with guidelines for
enhancing food safety and animal well-being.
As part of this endorsement, we are asking all
pork producers who supply us with hogs to
meet the pork industry goal of being certified
in the PQA Plus program by June 30, 2010 and
to complete a site
assessment by
January 1, 2011.
continuous improvement in food safety

management systems to ensure confidence
in the delivery of safe food to consumers.
The GFSI objectives are to:
A Systematic Management Approach
The GFSI benchmarked audit is an all-inclusive,

one-stop shop for all things food safety and
quality. Unlike other audits, certification requires
100-percent compliance to the audit standard.
As of September 2009, 67 of Tyson Foods U.S.
facilities have been certified against the British
Retail Consortium Global Standard for Food
Safety, Issue 5. Additionally, our vertically
integrated joint-venture beef operation in
Argentina has received this certification. We
believe our pursuit of GFSI certification is an
opportunity to demonstrate to the global
community the high standards to which
we produce our food products. For more
information regarding GFSI, please visit
http://www.ciesnet.com/2-wwedo/2.2programmes/2.2.foodsafety.gfsi.asp.
In addition to governmental regulatory

requirements, we have developed our own
highly integrated policies, procedures, controls,
and good manufacturing practices designed
to ensure the safety and quality of our food
products. Our system often extends beyond
regulatory requirements to address such issues
as facility sanitation, Team Member training,
personal hygiene, product handling, food
protection, foreign material prevention, product
quality, storage, and transportation.
In July 2008, we began pursuing our Global
Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) certification. The
GFSI is a partnership between food safety
experts from retailer, manufacturer, and food
service companies that focuses on the
Promote convergence between food safety

standards by maintaining a benchmarking
process for food safety management
schemes.
Improve cost efficiency throughout the food
supply chain via the common acceptance
of GFSI recognized standards by retailers
around the world.
Provide a unique international stakeholder
platform for networking, knowledge
exchange, and the sharing of best food
safety practices and information.
Tyson Foods Food Safety and Quality

Assurance Team
Our Food Safety and Quality Assurance (FSQA)
team plays a key role in ensuring the safety and
quality of our food products. This team includes
2,300 food safety and quality professionals
serving in key functions at both the corporate
and facility level. Working in partnership with our
facilities and regulatory authorities, this team
monitors the implementation and effectiveness
of our food safety and quality assurance
policies, procedures, and controls, and:
Performs food safety and sanitation
inspections;
Verifies regulatory, policy, and procedural
compliance;
Provides laboratory analysis and support;
and
Assists with the continual improvement
of our food safety and quality assurance
program.
Our Laboratory Services Network

Tyson Foods Laboratory Services Network
is recognized throughout the industry as a
research leader in food chemistry, food
microbiology, and food safety research. This
network consists of two corporate laboratories,
four regional laboratories, and 11 fresh meats
laboratories. A total of 10 laboratories in the
network are accredited for ISO 17025.
Additionally, our 25,000 square-foot state-ofthe-art laboratory in Springdale, Arkansas, is
accredited for both ISO 17025 and ISO 90012008. This laboratory is proficient in many
aspects of food safety microbiology, food safety
research, and food chemistry. Moreover, the
field and training services part of this laboratory
provides support to Tyson Foods processing
facilities in key areas such as training, auditing,
and optimization of antimicrobial systems.
Through the efforts of the laboratory network,
Tyson Foods has made substantial contributions
to research covering E.coli O157:H7, Salmonella,
Avian Influenza, Listeria monocytongenes,
campylobacter, and other public health issues
and initiatives aimed at improving food safety
and animal health. Although not considered a
part of the Tyson Foods Laboratory Services
Network, the company also maintains 58
plant-based quality assurance laboratories that
assist with the day-to-day implementation and
management of our companys food safety and
quality assurance programs.
Audits and Inspections
All Tyson Foods production facilities, co-packers,
custom processors, distribution centers, and
suppliers of ingredients and packaging materials
are required to comply with the government
regulations and company policies, procedures,
controls, and good manufacturing practices

applicable to their operations. To ensure
compliance with these requirements, we conduct,
and are subject to, a number of audits and
inspections. This includes, but is not limited to:
Self-audits conducted by facility management
teams and facility-based FSQA Team
Members;
Inspections conducted by various government
agencies such as the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety Inspection
Service (FSIS) and the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA);
Routine audits conducted by corporate
FSQA Team Members;
Audits conducted by customers;
Annual audits performed by an independent
third-party organization; and
Initial and annual third-party audits of
co-packers and custom processors.
During fiscal year 2009, we began implementation
of Plant.View software, a food safety and
quality assurance recordkeeping application.
The Plant.View software guides our FSQA Team
Members through process checks, verifications,
corrective actions, and pre-shipment reviews,
thus improving our compliance with regulatory,
company, and customer standards and
requirements. Specifically, it provides our
facilities with a single solution for all production
and quality control, customer specification,
and regulatory data collection and reporting
requirements. This electronic record-keeping
system not only improves food safety by
reducing the chance of human error, it has the
potential to save more than 10 tons of office
paper per year.
Ingredient Sourcing
Our commitment to providing the world with
trusted food products requires us to partner
with ingredient suppliers who share the same
commitment. We spend more than $800 million
dollars annually for the raw ingredients that are
part of our finished products. Since the majority
of our operations are based in the U.S., we
purchase most of our ingredients from U.S.based suppliers.
While we do not disclose, for competitive
reasons, specific details about the source of
our ingredients, we do maintain an extensive
ingredient-supplier approval process. This
process requires our ingredient suppliers to
comply with the ingredient specifications we
set forth. For each raw ingredient we purchase,
we have a specification file that provides
information for ensuring each ingredient meets
our requirements from both a regulatory and
food-safety aspect.
Additionally, our ingredient suppliers must comply
with food-safety regulations and standards
applicable to their operations such as those
set forth by USDA, FDA, Good Manufacturing
Practices (GMP), and Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Points (HACCP). We also
require our ingredient suppliers to meet our
stringent requirements related to, but not
limited to:
Certificates of continuing guarantee;
Packaging descriptions and details;
Warehousing and storage information;
Names and certifications of co-packers or
co-suppliers;
Documentation of various practices,

programs, and procedures such as good
agricultural practices, food defense
programs, pest control, and recall
procedures;
Identification of all allergens; and
Kosher certification, when applicable.
To further ensure the ingredients we receive are
safe, our suppliers must verify they can trace
their ingredients to their point of origin. In
addition, in the spring of 2008, our FSQA
department implemented a comprehensive
ingredient supplier audit program that establishes
a method for assuring the ingredients used in
our food products meet regulatory food-safety
and quality standards as well as our ingredient-
supplier requirements. We require annual thirdparty audits for all ingredient suppliers.
Moreover, our FSQA department conducts
random ingredient-supplier audits. Any ingredient
that does not meet our safety and quality
requirements will not be used in a Tyson Foods
product.
Controlling, Tracking, and Tracing
Our Products
Our goal is to be world class in our ability to
track and trace our products throughout our
production and distribution channels. In fiscal
year 2008, we launched development of our
Enterprise Inventory Management (EIM) program.
This program will strengthen our ability to
control product at both plant and distribution
warehouses by giving our food-safety team a
global view of inventory and the ability to hold
or release product from anywhere via an Internet
connection. It will also allow our team to
accurately track a product through our production
and distribution process, and improve our
ability to trace, by key indicators such as

supplier and batch number, all ingredients that
are a part of a finished product.
Should the need arise, it is imperative that
we can effectively and efficiently identify and
isolate a specific product. Our EIM program
provides both the framework and technology
that not only executes product retrieval in a
timely manner, but also helps us better manage
our ingredients and product inventories. In
addition, our EIM program will provide a:
Real-time, global view of our product
inventory level, status, and availability;
Direct link to inventory for the systematic
holding and releasing of product;
Process for quick action to resolve and
release or dispose of product that has been
placed on hold;
Single detailed report on ingredients and the
source of ingredients used in a product;
Mechanism for placing finished products
and incoming ingredients on hold until all
safety and quality checks are completed,
ensuring they meet all applicable requirements
and specifications;
Computerized process, with bar code
scanning capabilities, that reduces manual
product and ingredient tracking processes
and paperwork;
Foundational system for other business
areas within Tyson Foods to connect to,
which will create an industry leading EIM
program; and
Means for ensuring our products meet
customer requirements, maintain consumer
confidence, and protect the trust consumers
have in Tyson Foods and our brands.
Product Recalls
Genetically Modified Organisms
Product recalls can happen for many reasons, such as product mislabeling,
the addition of an incorrect ingredient in a product, nonconformance to
customer specifications, or contaminated products. In these situations,
immediate action may be essential for protecting the health of the consumer.
Genetic modification is often used in crops, such as corn and soy, to

improve key production aspects including yield, insect resistance, and
drought tolerance. As this practice has become more common and
widespread, customers and consumers have begun to ask about the
potential effects of genetic modification on food safety. As noted in the
Ingredient Sourcing section above, Tyson Foods only uses ingredients
that meet the safety regulations set forth by USDA and FDA.
It is for this reason Tyson Foods maintains an effective recall policy that
provides guidelines for initiating, investigating, and conducting product
recalls. If we become aware of a situation in which we suspect a product
could adversely affect the health and safety of our consumers, we will
initiate a voluntary product recall to carry out a timely and effective
recovery of the product.
In addition, we conduct mock recalls with our processing facilities and
our distribution teams. Mock recalls provide a methodology for practicing
and evaluating our ability to recall finished products, ingredients, and
packaging materials in a thorough and timely manner. They also help us
identify opportunities for the continual improvement of our recall procedures.
During fiscal years 2008 and 2009, we initiated one product recall. In
August 2008, in cooperation with USDA, we voluntarily recalled 51,360
pounds of uncooked, foodservice chicken due to an undeclared soybased allergen resulting from a labeling error. While there were no reported
illnesses with this product, we initiated this recall as a precautionary
measure. We maintain strict internal controls and procedures to protect
against potential allergen labeling errors.
Tyson Foods does not currently distinguish between GMO and non-GMO
when buying grain and meal for the purpose of blending chicken feed.
There have been discussions by grain suppliers of segregating ingredients
by seed origin; however, the proposed methods appear to be inadequate
to insure casual contact can be avoided and that ingredients can be
guaranteed as non-GMO. Since a significant percent of the annual corn
and soybean crops is of GM origin, it is likely we use GMO grain in feed
for our chickens. It is important to note that we have no preference, and
there are no performance differences in GMO and non-GMO in the meatconversion process.
Just as in our feed ingredients, the major finished-product ingredients
with GMO questions are those derived from corn and soybeans. Since
suppliers of breadings, marinades, and spices have only recently begun
to discuss segregation of ingredients, we must also assume that these
products contain GMO. Common ingredients that could potentially
contain GMO are corn flour, corn meal, corn starch, corn syrup, corn
gluten, soybean oil, soy proteins, and soy meals.
We believe science is sound and supports the belief that the corn and
soybeans used in virtually every segment of the food industry pose no
near or long-term health risk to the consuming public. Furthermore,
there is no advantage of any sort for Tyson Foods in the performance
of either source.
5.2 Supporting Our Customers and Consumers

Our commitment to food safety does not
end when our products leave our processing
facilities. To help our customers and consumers
make informed buying decisions, we strive
to provide accurate and reliable ingredient
statements for our food products. Our Regulatory
Labeling Compliance and Product Specifications
group ensures our products are packaged and
labeled in accordance with our corporate
product specifications and regulatory requirements
related to ingredients, product formulation,
nutrition information, and product claims, such
as natural, whole grain, zero trans fat, and
reduced fat.
Over the years, this group has been instrumental

in our implementation of key labeling initiatives,
including the mandatory nutrition labeling
dictated by the Nutrition Labeling Education
Act of 1993. This group was also instrumental
in the companys allergen labeling efforts. There
are eight foods that account for 90 percent of
all food-allergic reactions: milk, eggs, peanuts,
tree nuts, soy, wheat, shellfish, and fish. To help
our consumers make informed decisions, in
2001 well ahead of the Food Allergen Labeling
and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 we
proactively initiated labeling of packaged
products that contain these allergens.
This group not only maintains a working

relationship with key Tyson Foods business
units, such as research and development,
marketing, and food safety and quality assurance,
it also maintains collaborative relationships
with the USDA, Food Safety and Inspection
Service, Food Nutrition Service, and Agriculture
Marketing Service to assure governmental
approvals for our packaging and labeling.
When it comes to food safety in the home, our

consumers are in control. We are committed to
offering tools and resources to help them safely
prepare and serve our products once they
get them home. Accordingly, we have created
a food safety and education program called
foodWISE. This information resource program
provides our customers and consumers with
tips and information pertaining to food safety.
We invite our customers and consumers to

learn more about our foodWISE program at
www.tyson.com.
If our customers and consumers would like to
ask us questions about our products directly,
we encourage them to Ask Willie. Willie
Barber, affectionately known to us as Miss
Willie, has worked in the chicken industry for
more than 20 years and for Tyson Foods as the
Manager of Consumer Information Services
since 1989. Willie and her team of Consumer
Information Services representatives, respond
to calls, letters, and e-mails from our customers
and consumers. These representatives are
trained to respond to concerns about food
safety and quality, nutritional content, food
storage and preparation, and new product
lines. Various expert resources also support
these representatives. This includes Tyson
Foods Team Members with doctorates in
chemistry, microbiology, food sciences, and
nutrition and members of our food safety and
quality assurance and marketing departments.
To ensure a direct line of communication with

our food safety and quality experts, our
Consumer Information Services team reports
to our companys senior vice president of
Science and Regulatory Affairs.
If a question cannot be answered immediately,
we will respond within 48 hours via phone,
e-mail, or other customer-preferred method.
During fiscal years 2008 and 2009, we heard
from approximately 230,000 customers and
consumers. The majority of these requests
focused on the safe handling of our products,
specific product concerns, corporate inquiries,
and marketing promotions. The ideas and
thoughts of our customers and consumers
are very important to us. This feedback helps
ensure we are providing the taste, value, and
convenience our customers and consumers
want, and helps us maintain a focus on
continual improvement.
We are also committed to providing our

customers and consumers with helpful
information on meal ideas, economical protein
solutions, and feeding children healthy protein
products they love. At www.tyson.com, consumers
can access Tyson Foods Recipe Central and:
Collect five days of dinner recipes, which
change each week;
Visit our 10 most viewed recipes;
Find food tips and tricks for kids; and
All recipes featured on www.tyson.com are

presented with nutritional information based on
serving size. Each recipe is also presented with
time estimates related to preparation, marination,
and cooking, as well as serving suggestions
and substitution tips. Consumers also have
the opportunity to tell us what they think of our
recipes by simply choosing from five stars (very
good) to one star (not very good) and selecting
Rate It! The average of all votes becomes the
rating for the recipe.
Search for recipes based on the recipe

name, a specific ingredient, nutritional
requirements, or the meal type or occasion.
5.3 Product Research and Development
Tyson Foods is dedicated to developing a bestin-class, value-added product portfolio that

meets the needs of todays changing market.
By applying in-depth understanding of consumer
and customer needs, analytical skills, and
strategic thinking, we are positioned at the
forefront of product innovation. We will continue
to demonstrate our commitment to research
and development by creating new and relevant
food solutions for years to come.
Discovery Center
In January of 2007,
we opened the
100,000 square-foot
Discovery Center to enhance our ability to
develop new food solutions and bring them to
market faster. The Discovery Center, located at
Tyson Foods World Headquarters in Springdale,
Arkansas, is the focal point for the development
of insights, people, processes, and new and
innovative products. Bringing together Tyson
Foods protein research and development into
a single location, the work space was designed
to maximize communication and collaboration
with knowledge applied across chicken, beef,
and pork. Below are several key highlights
about the Discovery Center.
Research Kitchens
The Discovery Center includes 19 specialized
research kitchens utilizing 20,000 square feet of
custom-designed space equipped specifically
for the business units and customer channels
we serve. All kitchens were designed for
maximum technical flexibility and culinary
Team Members involved with in-plant trials. In

keeping with best practices for the safety of
our guests and our products, the pilot plant
offers a viewing gallery that allows customers
and guests to observe several segments of
pilot plant activity without entering a food-safe
environment.
Consumer Center
effectiveness, allowing our product innovators
to work in real-world environments.
By design, the kitchens can be customized to
meet the needs of any customer. Each kitchen
contains lighting and other equipment that
simulates the foodservice or retail food
environments. Some of the kitchens are
equipped with overhead cameras and recording
devices. This gives Tyson Foods the ability to
allow customers and our marketing and sales
Team Members access to product reviews and
food demonstrations from any location in the world.
USDA-Inspected Pilot Plant
The Discovery Center also includes a 40,000square-foot multi-protein, USDA-inspected
pilot plant. The plant provides a real world
testing ground to evaluate numerous elements
in the product-development process. In this
unique facility, we have the ability to replicate
nearly every production process using the exact
equipment found in our processing plants.
The pilot plant also eliminates the disruptions,
inefficiencies, and translation errors that can
occur during new-product testing at productionplant trials, and reduces travel expenses for
When developing a new product or evaluating

the use of different ingredients in a current
product, it is important to know the thoughts,
ideas, perceptions, and preferences of the
consumer. The Discovery Center offers a new
Consumer Sensory Panel area and Consumer
Focus Group learning center. These areas
provide the company with an opportunity to
gain consumer insight prior to the release of a
new or improved product.
The Consumer Sensory Panel area includes 12
individual sensory booths. These booths allow
internal, external, and expert participants to
sample and evaluate single or multiple product
attributes including visual, texture, taste, and
aroma. The participants are then able to enter
their responses into a computer-based sensory
evaluation system. Our R & D team can then
quickly tabulate and evaluate the responses,
resulting in a quicker product development
process.
The Consumer Focus Group learning center
allows for in-depth, one-on-one or group
discussions regarding the marketing activity
of a new product. Participants are queried on
various aspects of a proposed new product, or
changes to an existing product, to gain consumer

insights. The ability to listen directly to the
end-user to help create new products is what
enables us to meet the needs of todays
changing market.
Our Research and Development Staff
The Discovery Center is home to the 120 food
science, product development, and culinary
professionals who are part of our Research
and Development team. More than 40 of these
professionals hold advanced degrees, including
14 with PhDs. We have 16 culinologists on
staff, with another 50 technologists in training
to become Research Chef Association Certified
Culinologists. This training program, developed
by Johnson and Wales University and the
University of Arkansas, is conducted on the
campus of the University of Arkansas to eliminate
the need for travel. This will allow the product
development team to have a well-rounded
understanding of both the culinary aspect and
the commercial viability of producing a product.
New Product Development
Product Innovation Recognitions
Our current research indicates many consumers

are looking for delicious, affordable, and healthy
protein meal solutions. Below are examples
of recent product releases designed to meet
consumer needs.
Tyson Foods commitment to innovation is

evidenced by the prestigious product innovation
recognitions and awards we receive.
In early 2009, we released our foodservice

Tyson Right Size Fillets. Made with
whole-muscle breast meat, these breaded
and fully cooked fillets are ideal for breakfast,
lunch or midday snack menu options, keeping
consumers eating well all day within a budget.
Our Trimmed and Ready fresh chicken is a
line of premium cuts. Each is hand trimmed
and selected to deliver the highest quality.
There is no additional trimming or handling
required by the consumer.
Anytizers snacks are a line of frozen
appetizers ready in just minutes. Anytizers
snacks can be used in the afternoon, as a
light meal, or as an appetizer for a gathering.
Recent additions to our Anytizers line
include four new bold items that allow the
consumer to add as little or as much of the
provided sauce packets to the Anytizers
product as they want.
We are also responding to consumer demand
for minimally processed foods with no
artificial ingredients. For example, our Tyson
Nuggets, Patties, Tenders, and Individually
Frozen Split Cornish Game Hens are 100%
All Natural. They contain no added trans fat,
no artificial ingredients, no preservatives, no
fillers, and are minimally processed.
Tyson Foods ranked number one

in the Cannondale Associates
2008 FoodservicElite Composite
Manufacturer Rankings for the
sixth consecutive year.
For the second consecutive
year, one of our new products
finished in the top three for
Prepared Foods Magazines
Spirit of Innovation Awards.
Our tangle-shaped and
lightly breaded chicken strip took home
second place in the Foodservice Category
as Most Innovative New Product.
Our Yankee Pot Roast received
the Nebraska Beef Council
2008 Best New Beef Product
award, and our Mongolian
Style Beef Kit with Vegetables
received the same award
in 2009.
5.4 Promoting Nutrition and Health

Ensuring the safety and quality of our food products is only one
aspect of our commitment to feeding our families, the nation, and the
world with trusted food products. We recognize health and wellness are
also important to our customers and consumers, and there is growing
interest in issues such as childhood obesity and heart health. As such,
we are committed to providing food products that contribute to a healthy
lifestyle and offer great taste and convenience for our customers and
consumers.
Our corporate-based Nutrition Team, which includes both registered
dietitians and advanced-practice nutrition technicians, creates and
maintains nutrition data for our products. This team assures our
companys compliance for nutrition labeling, provides nutritional
guidance during new product development, creates and maintains
child-nutrition summaries for school lunch and government feeding
programs, and tracks current and emerging nutrition trends. Our
Nutrition Team provides responses to customer and consumer
inquiries regarding nutritional guidance, potential allergens, and
ingredient information.
Tyson Foods offers a wide range of protein choices that includes

fresh, enhanced, and marinated chicken; beef and pork products; canned
chicken; and fully cooked products to meet the needs of todays consumers,
including those watching their intake of calories, sodium, total fat, and
trans fat. The Nutrition Facts Panel on our retail packages provides
information for consumers to help them make healthful choices. As
required, the panel offers details about such things as the fat, sodium,
calorie, and carbohydrate levels of our products. Below are examples of
products that offer customers and consumers more healthful food options.
100% All Natural
We are responding to customer and consumer demand for all natural
foods with no artificial ingredients. For example, our Tyson Nuggets,
Patties, and Tenders are 100% All Natural. As shown on the product
packaging, these products are minimally processed and contain no
artificial ingredients, no preservatives, and no fillers.
Removal of Trans Fat

Keeping with our tradition of being first to offer
cutting-edge innovation, we began the process
of removing trans-fat ingredients from our fully
cooked breaded poultry retail products in 2004.
We made this move in response to consumer
and operator interest in products with reduced
trans-fat content. While chicken products are
naturally low in trans fat, it can be found in
certain added ingredients, such as breading
and cooking oils. It is for this reason Tyson
Foods decided to reformulate its entire breaded
poultry portfolio. In 2005, we completed trans
fat removal from our retail fully cooked breaded
poultry products and our child nutrition
school foodservice products. Since the 2007
completion of our additional school foodservice
item reformulations, our companys entire line
of branded chicken products contain zero
grams trans fat per serving.
Reducing Sodium
Recognizing that many of our consumers are
actively engaged in preventing and managing
health conditions, Tyson Foods is committed
to providing food solutions to help meet
their goals. As part of our continuing efforts
to provide healthful food options, we have a
corporate-wide initiative focused on ways to
limit the use of sodium in our meat and poultry
products without significantly impacting flavor.
This initiative includes the use of tools to help
formulate new and existing products that
support our position on health and wellness
and sodium reduction. In addition, we are
working with our Food Service customers to
provide lower sodium products to help with
their menu planning.
Childrens Nutritional Needs
Studies show that eating whole grains instead

of refined grains lowers the risk of many
chronic diseases. While benefits are most
pronounced for those consuming at least three
servings daily, some studies show reduced
risks from as little as one serving daily. We offer
breaded chicken nuggets and patties, each with
eight grams of whole grain per serving, that
carry the Whole Grain Stamp from the Whole
Grain Council (www.wholegrainscouncil.org/).
By incorporating whole-grain breading in our
chicken products, it is easier for children to
increase whole-grain intake as encouraged by
the 2005 Dietary Guidelines.
At Tyson Foods, we put our hearts into creating

the safest, most wholesome products available,
including those we produce for our Food Service
K12 school business. Tyson products are
perfect for school breakfast, lunch, and snack
programs. In fact, with Tyson Kid Tested, Kid
Approved products on their menus, schools
can feel confident serving products students
love. We taste test new chicken and beef
products with students to get their feedback.
This proven process allows us to offer kid-
endorsed products that help increase a
schools average daily participation in their
meal program.
Below are examples of new products we

launched in fiscal year 2009 for the K12 program.
Our Food Service products for schools provide

a combination of tastes, menu variety, and fun
kids want, with the value, quality, consistency,
and nutrition they need. As a company, we
have removed all man-made trans-fat ingredients
from our Food Service products for schools.
We have developed a nutritional platform for
new product development, which ensures less
than 35 percent of the products total calories
come from fat and that the sodium content per
serving is 400 milligrams or less per serving.
Our Mexican Original Original Wraps

Whole Grain 10-inch Press Flour Tortilla
Wraps provide 31 grams of whole grain per
serving.
Tyson All Natural Chicken Chunks meet

USDA guidelines for 100-percent all-natural
labeling. These chicken chunks are minimally
processed with no added flavors or
ingredients.
Tyson Hot & Spicy Whole Grain Chicken
Chunks offer nine grams of whole grain per
serving.
Our Fresh Tyson Burger offers students an
authentic flame-broiled-tasting burger made
from domestic beef that is 85-percent lean.
In fiscal year 2009, we became the only beef

processor to participate in the USDA Agricultural
Marketing Services Beef Pilot Procurement
Program. Through our unique process from
procurement to production, we are able to
process fresh beef, on demand, five days
from animal harvest as opposed to a frozen
commodity burger that is made from frozen

beef which can take up to 90 days to process
and is frozen and thawed up to three times.
The Fresh Tyson Burger is made from fresh
beef that is processed in as little as two hours
and is frozen a single time.
We also work closely with the USDA Commodity
Program and the USDA agencies at the federal
and state level through the Food & Nutrition
Services, Farm Service Agency, Agriculture
Marketing Service, and Food Safety Inspection
Service, along with state distributing agencies
through state and regional offices, to ensure
safe, healthy, high-quality foods for school
nutrition programs. These efforts have also
brought more efficient and economical solutions
to school nutrition programs. For example,
when school nutrition directors choose Tyson
Foods to divert their USDA commodity chicken
and beef into foods kids and teens want, our
efficient supply chain allows directors and
schools to save up to $10 per case of product
purchased, decrease their storage costs, and
better manage timely product deliveries.
We are an active, longtime sponsor and elected

board member of the School Nutrition Association,
a national, nonprofit professional organization
representing more than 55,000 members
who provide high-quality, low-cost meals to
students across the country. Specifically, the
association ensures all children have access to
healthful school meals and nutrition education
by:
Providing members with education and
training;
Setting standards through certification and
credentialing;
Gathering and transmitting regulatory,
legislative, industry, nutritional, and other
types of information related to school
nutrition; and
Representing the nutritional interests of all
children.
To assure that our sales and marketing
professionals are well entrenched in the school
foodservice world, we maintain research and
development Team Members on our School
Food Service Team, and eight of our School
Food Service Team Members have earned School

Nutrition Specialist credentials through the rigorous
SNA operator credentialing examination. Learn
more about the School Nutrition Association at
www.schoolnutrition.org.
Through the foodWISE For Me program,
which is part of the Tyson Foods foodWISE
educational program, we help schools create
healthy meals for students while increasing
student participation in their school meal
programs. We also offer school foodservice
training through Tyson University training.
Tyson University training is a multiple-day
learning experience featuring accredited training
courses and school foodservice specific
curriculum. Tyson University training covers
various topics such as commodity processing,
wellness,nutrition, procurement, operations,
and management for school foodservice
decisions makers. Learn more about the
foodWISE For Me program and Tyson University
at www.tysonK12.com.
5.5 Responsible Marketing and

Advertising
Our principal marketing objective is to be the primary
provider of chicken, beef, pork, and prepared foods
products for our customers and consumers. As such, we
utilize our national distribution system and customer support services
to achieve the leading market position for our products. On an ongoing
basis, we identify distinctive markets and business opportunities through
continuous consumer and market research.
In addition to supporting strong regional brands across multiple protein
lines, we build the Tyson brand primarily through well-defined, productspecific advertising and public relations efforts that are focused toward
key consumer targets with specific needs. These efforts are designed
to present key Tyson Foods products as everyday solutions to relevant
consumer problems, thereby gaining adoption into regular eating routines.
Further, we use a coordinated mix of activities designed to connect with
our customers and consumers on both rational and emotional levels.
We do not sell products that are banned in certain markets or

products subject to stakeholder question or public debate.
Point of sale and marketing materials, as well as advertisements
used by all Tyson Foods businesses, receive thorough internal business
unit and legal review to ensure the accuracy of every claim made. We
advertise in accordance with guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission,
as well as the label claims shown on our products, which are approved
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service.
Our print ads are targeted to adults, including parents and single-person
or dual-person households who prepare meals at home. We strive to
place our television advertisements in general-audience programming
that is free from gratuitous displays of violence, sex, and profanity.
Additionally, we strive to ensure our television advertisements are aired
during programming that does not disparage any religious, ethnic, or
political group and does not imply the company supports specific points
of view. We do not advertise to children and we have policies in place
that prevent children from providing personal information via our Web site.
5.6 Animal Well-Being

Producing a safe, nutritious food product
begins with ensuring the health and well-being
of the animals we raise and process. Tyson
Foods has a long-standing commitment to the
well-being and proper handling of the animals
used in its food products. It is an expectation
expressed in our Core Values, which call for us
to serve as stewards of the animals, land, and
environment entrusted to us. This is not only
the right thing to do; it is also an important
moral and ethical obligation we owe to our
suppliers, customers, ourselves, and most
importantly, to the animals we depend on for
our products and our livelihood.
Our commitment to animal well-being helps us
maintain the critical balance between ensuring
the needs of our animals are met and providing
our customers and consumers with the quality
food products they deserve. CLICK HERE to
review our Animal Well-Being Mission Statement.
Our Office of Animal Well-Being

As part of our commitment to animal well-being,
we established the Office of Animal Well-Being
in 2000. Kellye Pfalzgraf, DVM, directs this
office and our animal well-being programs.
Dr. Pfalzgraf has 34 years experience in food
animal veterinary practice. He served as a
Veterinary Medical Officer for U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and
Inspection Services (FSIS) in a pork slaughter
facility, and received training from various
specialists in the field of animal well-being,
including the internationally recognized expert
Dr. Temple Grandin.
In addition to his responsibilities for Tyson
Foods, Dr. Pfalzgraf serves on numerous animal
well-being committees across the industry. As
such, he is recognized as an industry expert in
the area of animal well-being and regularly
provides guidance and consultation to many
retail, food service, and trade associations.
Specifically, the responsibilities of this office

include:
Advising our executive and management
teams on animal well-being issues, and
working directly with customers and trade
groups on these issues;
Advising producer organizations in the
development of animal well-being guidelines,
self-assessments, audit criteria, and the
determination of acceptable limits;
Performing random animal-handling audits
at Tyson Foods slaughter facilities, and
trending monthly internal audit results;
Developing animal well-being training videos
and written materials, and ensuring facilities
conduct training sessions with Team Members
that handle live animals; and
Presenting programs and describing company
and industry animal well-being practices to
professional, producer, customer, and
consumer groups.
Animal Well-Being Programs and Practices

We have developed and implemented animal
well-being programs and practices for all
segments of our business: chicken, beef, and
pork. The programs consist of training for Team
Members that handle and work with live animals;
on-going process monitoring; and internal and
third party audits and reviews. While these
programs and practices differ based on the
animal, we believe they demonstrate our
proactive commitment to the proper rearing,
handling, and slaughter of chickens, and the
handling and slaughter of cattle and swine.
Below are examples of specific programs and
practices we have implemented.
Chicken Well-Being
All Team Members working with live chickens
are required to attend annual chicken-handling
classes. They must successfully pass a written
test to assure their understanding of proper
handling techniques and sign an agreement
to comply with the Tyson Foods chicken wellbeing requirements. Posters and signs are
posted in various areas throughout our facilities
to remind Team Members of our commitment

to animal well-being. Team Members found
in violation of any of these requirements are
subject to disciplinary action, up to and including
termination.
Additionally, best practice system assessments
and chicken-handling audits are implemented
in our hatcheries and chicken slaughter facilities.
Facility management teams conduct weekly
chicken-handling well-being audits in accordance
with the National Chicken Councils Animal
Welfare Guidelines and Audit Checklist, and
facility-based Food Safety and Quality Assurance
technicians conduct monthly chicken-handling
well-being verification audits in our slaughter
facilities. In addition, audits are conducted
annually by various customers as well as
professional auditing companies trained in
animal well-being auditing. All audit results,
including both internal and external results,
are sent to our Office of Animal Well-Being
for monitoring and trend analysis.
Beef and Swine Well-Being

Team Members working with live animals must
be Trained Animal Handler (TAH) Certified. This
certification consists of a four-stage program
requiring completion of a professionally developed
training class on animal handling and stunning.
Certified Team Members must successfully
pass a written test to assure their understanding
of proper handling techniques, and sign an
agreement to comply with the Tyson Foods
beef and swine well-being requirements.
Annual recertification is required. As with our
chicken well-being program, Team Members
found in violation of these requirements are
subject to disciplinary action, up to and including
termination.
We also maintain Risk Assessment, Control,
and Evaluation (RACE), a program that is like
a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point
(HACCP) program for animal well-being. These
programs, coupled with oversight reviews from
our internal corporate management team, are
over and above the regulatory requirements of
USDA as mandated in the Humane Slaughter
Act of 1978.
We also maintain an extensive animal well-being

communication and audit program in our beef
and pork processing plants. This includes:
The posting of signs in animal receiving and
handling areas reminding Team Members of
our commitment to animal well-being;
Video surveillance of animal handling and
stunning areas;
Insensibility audits at key areas are conducted
by facility management on every shift;
Each slaughter facility has an internal animal
well-being team that reviews audit results
and implements enhancements to improve
animal handling practices;
Facility management conducts quarterly
yard-condition and driver-transportation
audits;
Weekly internal animal well-being audits
at each beef and pork processing plant
conducted in accordance with the American
Meat Institutes Animal Welfare Guidelines;
Facility management performs semi-annual,
in-depth animal-well-being audits, and the
results of these audits are reported to

company executives;
Tyson Foods Office of Animal Well Being
conducts random, in-depth slaughter facility
audits for animal handling annually, consulting
on any issues identified; and
Third-party audits are conducted routinely
by independent professionals trained in
animal well-being auditing practices.
In addition, we engage with our animal
transportation partners, independent chicken
producers, and various industry associations to
promote further programs and practices aimed
at animal well-being. Because we purchase our
beef, and most of our pork, from independent
producers on the open market, we have less
control of these animals well-being prior to
processing. We still strive, however, to ensure
their well-being is maintained from the farm to
our facilities. For example, we only buy healthy
animals. Additionally, we provide manuals
which recommend good management and
well-being practices to the drivers who transport
live animals to our plants. We also have
management positions certified to train drivers

who haul swine in the Trucker Quality Assurance
program developed by the National Pork Board.
Key Animal Well-Being Topics Raised by
Stakeholders
We are committed to evaluating and managing
the animal well-being issues of greatest concern
to our stakeholders. Below we provide insight
into our management approach regarding some
of the most common questions or concerns
raised by our animal well-being stakeholders.
Housing of Broiler and Breeder Chickens
We do not raise our broiler chickens in cages
or our breeder chickens that lay the eggs that
hatch and become the broilers for our food
products. Both our broiler and breeder chickens
are raised in open barns or, as we commonly
refer to them, houses. These houses offer
adequate ventilation and lighting, as most are
equipped with curtains that are raised during
good weather, allowing for natural light and
fresh air. They are also equipped with automated
systems that deliver feed and water to the
chickens on an as-needed basis. The floor of a
house is covered with plant-based materials,

such as rice hulls. The houses provide a
comfortable environment in which the chickens
can move freely with protection from inclement
weather, extreme temperatures, disease, and
predators. We maintain strict policies regarding
the location, size, and stocking density of the
houses used to raise our chickens, for both
company-owned houses and independent
producer houses. These measures are critical
to ensuring the health and biosecurity of our
chickens and the quality of our food products.
Veterinary Medical Association and the American

Association of Swine Veterinarians have
reviewed the existing scientific literature on
gestational sow housing and have published
position statements that concluded individual
and group housing systems both have advantages
and disadvantages. For this reason, we will
continue to purchase pigs from producers using
both individual and group housing systems,
while we continue to monitor the scientific
literature regarding gestation housing.
Gestation Stalls for Sows
As with many animals that live or travel in flocks

and herds, broiler chickens naturally establish
a pecking order. This natural behavior can
lead to instances of undesirable behaviors
such as injurious pecking and clawing, and
sometimes cannibalism. We do not practice
beak trimming or toe trimming in broilers, nor
do our independent poultry producers. Instead,
we carefully monitor the conditions and stocking
densities of our company-owned and independent
producer broiler houses to minimize fighting,
feather pecking, and other negative behaviors.
We make animal well-being decisions based

on best available scientific research and the
recommendations of animal well-being experts
in the industry. Current information indicates
there are several types of production systems
that are favorable for pigs, including open
pens, gestation stalls, and open pasture.
According to published studies, the most
important consideration is the individual
care given to each animal and the caretakers
management and husbandry skills, regardless
of the system used. Furthermore, the American
Physical Alteration of Chickens
Stunning Methods
We continue to evaluate optimal methods for
stunning animals. In 2006, we concluded a
study evaluating the effectiveness of Controlled
Atmosphere Stunning (CAS). During the study,
we considered numerous key factors including,
but not limited to, animal well-bring, food
safety, product quality, workplace safety,
and other available scientific research. Based
on our study, we believe CAS may be an
acceptable alternative to conventional electrical
stunning; however, we do not consider it to be
more humane.
Safe Transport
The transport of animals to the processing
plant is an important animal well-being issue.
Research shows that, in addition to numerous
well-being benefits, careful and quiet animal
handling during loading, transport, and unloading
can produce meat quality benefits as well. It
is for these reasons, in the spring of 2010,
we will implement the American Meat Institute
Transportation Audit Guidelines for Cattle
and Hogs at all our beef and pork processing
facilities. These guidelines contain two sets

of audit criteria related to animal well-being
during transport. The first set of audit criteria
evaluates a processing facilitys policies and
preparedness for receiving animals including
minimization of wait time; weather, environmental
and emergency management plans; acceptable
handling tools; non-slip flooring; adequate
lighting; and the staff available to receive
animals. The second set of audit criteria focuses
on the set-up, loading and unloading, timely
arrival, and condition of the trailers used to
transport the animals to the processing facility.
We believe the implementation of these
guidelines will better enable us to identify
opportunities for continual improvement with
regards to the loading, transport, and unloading
of our cattle and hogs.
Chicken Health
Tyson Foods works hard every day to earn and
maintain consumer trust. We know that the
healthiest chickens produce the best products.
We also know that animal health, just like human
health, depends on a healthy diet, good
preventive health practices and a safe and

comfortable environment. We strive to provide
all of these elements to our chickens, all of the
time. We do this in cooperation with more than
5,700 family farms with whom we contract to
raise our chickens. And we employ specially
trained and licensed veterinarians to guide our
breeding, feeding and well-being practices to
be sure we are following the latest professional
guidance.
Tyson Foods only uses feed ingredients approved
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) and administers them only according to
veterinary assessments and under veterinary
supervision. Each flock of birds and grow-out
location typically has different animal health
needs. As a result, we may use different animal
health products and feed formulations at
different locations, according to the birds
needs. Just like our finished product recipes,
our feed formulations are proprietary and
may vary from complex to complex, and even
seasonally. We do not disclose specific feed
formulations for specific grow-out locations to
the public. However, we can say that all FDA-
approved antibiotics and antimicrobials may

sometimes be used by Tyson Foods for the
well-being of our chickens.
Tyson Foods also complies with federal
regulations prohibiting the use of added
hormones or steroids in any chicken product.
Cattle and Hog Health
Tyson Fresh Meats is committed to producing
wholesome, unadulterated meat products for
consumers. While we do not raise our own
cattle or hogs, we do purchase livestock from
multiple independent farmers, and we forge
partnerships with those producers, dealers,
and marketers to achieve the goal of safe,
wholesome foods.
It is a violation of Federal Food, Drug and
Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to sell livestock for
slaughter that may contain drug residues
or chemicals that exceed tolerances in meat
established by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA). The U.S. Department of
Agricultures (USDA) Food Safety Inspection
Service (FSIS) Residue Monitoring Program
tests meat and animal organs to ensure that
livestock producers have followed safe production methods regarding

any pharmaceutical use. USDA inspectors visually check each animal at
the packing plant for signs that they were managed with safe production
methods regarding use of veterinary drugs and hormones. In the rare
instance of a violative drug residue finding, the animals carcass and all
parts are condemned. In such cases, USDA notifies FDA of the violation,
and FDA in turn contacts the livestock producer.
Cloned Livestock
Tyson Foods currently has no plans to purchase cloned livestock, as it
will likely be a long time before such animals would even be available for
market. Any measures we ultimately take will be guided by government
regulations and the desires of our customers and consumers.
Tyson Fresh Meats supports the efforts of the National Cattlemens Beef
Association (NCBA) and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC),
which stress the importance of producers controlling drug residues in
their livestock. A unified commitment to animal health helps maintain the
critical balance between ensuring the needs of our animals are met and
providing our customers and consumers with the quality food products
they deserve.
6.0 PROFITS
Tyson Foods direct and indirect economic
impacts are an important aspect of our companys
sustainability performance. We recognize our
financial performance can be both positively
and negatively influenced by key factors which
include:
Commodity prices and the availability of raw
materials;
Market demand and the prices we receive
for our products;
Livestock supply and conditions;
Team Member relations;
Product safety and quality;
Domestic and international government

regulations; and
Factors or forces beyond our control, such
as natural disasters and extreme weather.
To ensure our economic impacts are positive,
we are committed to capitalizing on strategic
opportunities and to aggressively managing
potential risks. We are committed to conducting
our business in accordance with best practices
in corporate governance, and to preserving and
enhancing our relationship with our shareholders.
Moreover, with our talented, diverse, and high-
performing team, we strive to drive performance
in a winning, highly accountable culture
reflective of our Core Values. For example, we

are finding innovative ways to convert animal
byproducts into high-margin commercial
products, and we are committed to building a
multinational enterprise. We see our engagement
in the policy and political process as an important
part of corporate sustainability, and we work
diligently on regulatory and legislative policy
issues that can impact our business. In short,
at Tyson Foods, we are fully committed to
our Core Value statement: We strive to earn
consistent and satisfactory profits for our
shareholders and to invest in our people,
products, and processes.
6.1 CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND COMPLIANCE

Tyson Foods is committed to best practices in
corporate governance. We believe maintaining
qualified, independent directors on the Board
of Directors is an integral part of effective
governance. The functions of Chairman of the
Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) have been separated since 2006. The
Board has appointed a non-management lead
director to preside over executive sessions of
the independent, non-management directors.
Corporate Governance
Since 1998, the percentage of independent
directors has increased, while the overall size
of the Board has decreased. Of the nine
directors currently serving, six are independent.
Additionally, at the end of December 2009, we
had five females and seven minorities serving on
our governance committees, and one female
and three minorities serving on the Board of
Directors. Of the Team Members serving on
the Board and governance committees, twenty
are between the age of 30 and 50, and thirteen
are over the age of 50. We also maintain ten
executive officers of the company. Of the
officers currently serving, four are between the
ages of 30 and 50; six are 50 or older. One is
female, and one is a minority.
Director Qualifications and Nominations
Tyson Foods values the diverse thoughts,
backgrounds, skills, and characteristics of our
directors. As a part of the governance and
oversight process, the Nominating Committee
is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and
recommending individuals qualified to be
directors. While there are no specific minimum
qualifications that a potential nominee must
possess, the Nominating Committee selects
director nominees for, but not limited to, their

integrity, independence, diversity of experience,
business or other relevant experience, leadership,
and their ability to exercise sound judgment.
Our companys current directors bring broadbased experience related not only to food
production but also investments, health care,
education, and marketing.
If needed, the Nominating Committee will
draw on the expertise of the management and
corporate staff and, when appropriate, may hire
outside advisors to assist in the identification
and evaluation of director candidates. In
addition, the Nominating Committee may,
but is not required to, consider shareholder
recommendations for candidates to the Board.
In order to recommend a candidate to the
Board, shareholders and other interested parties
may direct communications to individual directors,
including the lead independent director; to a
Board committee; to the non-management
directors as a group; or to the Board as a
whole, by addressing the communication to
the named individual, the committee, the nonmanagement directors as a group, or the Board
as a whole, c/o Tyson Foods, Inc., Attention:
Secretary, 2200 Don Tyson Parkway, Springdale,
AR 72762-6999. Shareholders who wish to
formally nominate a candidate to the Board
must follow the procedures described in our
by-laws.
Board Committees
We maintain four board committees, including
an Audit Committee, Compensation Committee,
Governance Committee, and Nominating
Committee. These committees are chaired
by an independent member of the Board of
Directors. The committees also consist of at

least three directors, each of whom meets the
independence requirements of the New York
Stock Exchange and are appointed by the
Board of Directors. Through a clearly articulated
set of Corporate Governance Principles and
committee-specific charters, the directors are
responsible to set the overall governance tone
and exercise their business judgment to act in
what they reasonably believe to be in the best
interests of the company and its shareholders.
To review our committee charters, CLICK HERE.
Shareholder Communications
Shareholders and other interested parties may
direct communications to individual directors,
including the lead independent director; to a
Board committee; to the non-management
directors as a group; or to the Board as a
whole, by addressing the communication to
the named individual, the committee, the nonmanagement directors as a group, or the Board
as a whole, c/o Tyson Foods, Inc., Attention:
Secretary, 2200 Don Tyson Parkway, Springdale,
AR 72762-6999.
In addition, the companys by-laws prescribe
how proposals of shareholders, intended to
be presented at an annual meeting, must be
received by the company. To be so included, a
proposal must also comply with all applicable
provisions of Rule 14a-8 under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934.
The Board has adopted Corporate Governance
Principles, and the Audit Committee,
Compensation Committee, Nominating
Committee, and Governance Committee has
each adopted a written charter. The Board has
also adopted a Code of Conduct applicable to
all directors, officers, and Team Members.

Copies of these corporate governance
documents are available on our Investor
Relations Web site at http://ir.tyson.com under
Investor Relations or in print to any
shareholder who sends a request to:
Tyson Foods, Inc.
Attention: Secretary
2200 Don Tyson Parkway
Mail Stop CP004
Springdale, AR 72762-6999
Upon written request of any shareholder, the
company will furnish a copy of our Annual
Report on Form 10-K, as filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, including the
financial statements and schedules thereto.
The written request should be sent to the
Secretary, at the companys executive office.
The written request must state the person
making the request was a beneficial owner of
capital stock of the company. In addition, the
Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the
financial statements and schedules thereto, are
available on the companys Investor Relations
Web site at http://ir.tyson.com.
Compensation and Performance
In accordance with our Core Values, we are
committed to creating value for our shareholders,
and we strive to earn consistent and satisfactory
profits for our shareholders. The Compensation
Committee of the Board of Directors supports
the Board and works with management to
ensure key executives are compensated in
accordance with management philosophy,
company performance, competitive practice,
and regulatory requirements. This committee
will normally meet four times per year, in
conjunction with regular meetings of the Board,
to carry out its responsibilities. The committee

reviews and provides oversight with respect
to the companys compensation strategy,
corporate goals, and objectives relevant to
management compensation. This approach
ensures our companys compensation philosophy
supports business objectives, creates
shareholder value, is consistent with shareholder
interests, and attracts and retains the key
executive talent our company requires. Additionally,
this approach emphasizes company, business
unit, and personal performance, thus creating a
significant tie between the companys financial
performance and a key executives potential
compensation.
Tyson Foods Board of Directors, under the
direction of the Governance Committee and the
lead independent director, conducts an annual
self-evaluation to determine whether the Board,
its committees, and the directors are functioning
effectively. The assessment focuses on the
contribution of the Board and each of its
committees, and specifically will focus on areas
in which the Board or management believes the
Board and its committees could improve. The
Board does not maintain a separate process
for evaluating its performance with respect to
economic, environmental, and social performance.
Avoiding Conflicts of Interest
Tyson Foods respects the Board of Directors
and Team Members rights to manage personal
interests and relationships. At the same time,
Tyson Foods expects each person to avoid
possible conflicts of interest with Tyson Foods
business and avoid using their role or position
to achieve personal gain. As a part of the
governance and oversight process, the
Governance Committee periodically reviews
and approves certain transactions between
Tyson Foods and officers, directors, or affiliates

of Tyson Foods. Additionally, all Team Members
are expected to properly disclose and document
certain information regarding all personal and
family interests, businesses, property, investments,
and obligations that affect, or could be perceived
to affect, their job duties or the reputation of
Tyson Foods.
Compliance
Tyson Foods performs regular Compliance
Risk Assessments. These assessments are
conducted in an effort to create an inventory
of Tyson Foods compliance risks, measure
the likelihood and significance of a compliance
violation specific to a particular risk, gauge
the effectiveness of managements efforts to
manage the risk, and offer suggestions for
improvement. The companys potential
compliance risks areas are identified based
on the following considerations:
Known laws or regulations that apply to
Tyson Foods business;
Standards provided by the companys Code
of Conduct and other voluntary codes;
Legal and compliance risks disclosed in
Tyson Foods 10-K;
Previous compliance allegations, violations,
enforcement actions, or settlements;
Areas of compliance risk previously identified
by internal or external auditors;
Industry enforcement and litigation trends;
Alleged compliance violations by competitors;
Line management or Team Member views of
known issues; and
Business practices that have been criticized
by the media or non-government organizations.
As a result of our Compliance Risk Assessments,

we have identified 15 potential areas of
compliance risk. This includes animal welfare;
anti-trust; commodity-trading risk management;
conflicts of interest; Team Member safety;
employment practices; environmental compliance;
food safety and quality assurance; government
relations; international business practices; live
production; record retention; Securities and
Exchange Commission, financial reporting, and
corporate governance; safeguarding assets;
and transportation.
Tyson Foods Compliance Organization
In 2006, Tyson Foods established a Compliance
Organization. The purpose of the Compliance
Organization is to establish and maintain a
cohesive and effective compliance program
that meets or exceeds the elements of the
Federal Sentencing Guidelines. This program
consists of activities implemented by Tyson
Foods to manage and mitigate its compliance
risks. In short, the objectives of the Compliance
Organization are to:
Understand Tyson Foods compliance risks
and managements response to those risks;
Develop compliance education and training
in an effort to minimize compliance issues;
Implement investigative protocols for the
resolution of compliance related issues; and
As appropriate, communicate and report
compliance activities to senior management
and the Audit and Governance Committees
of the Board of Directors.
The Compliance Organization is managed by
the companys Chief Audit and Compliance
Officer, in consultation with the General Counsel.
The Chief Audit and Compliance Officer has
overall responsibility, management, and authority

for the Compliance Program, including structure,
scope, resources, and initiatives. Additionally,
the Compliance Organization and the Chief
Audit and Compliance Officer are supported by
a Compliance Director, who is responsible for
the daily administration of the Compliance
Program. The Audit and Governance committees
of the Board of Directors receives regular
reports from the Compliance Organization and
monitors the Compliance Organizations program
design, implementation, and effectiveness as
defined in their committee charters.
Compliance Coordination Committee
Tyson Foods Compliance Coordination
Committee, which includes compliance risk
owners (senior level managers who have been
designated as responsible individuals with
respect to specific types of compliance risks),
the Compliance Organization, the Office of
General Counsel, select business unit leaders,
and other designees as appropriate, meets
quarterly. The principal activities of the
Compliance Coordination Committee are to
identify opportunities to strengthen Tyson
Foods approach to compliance risk management;
cascade and communicate information about
compliance-related policies, processes,
procedures and initiatives to their areas of
responsibility; educate other committee members
on the risk challenges and strategic objectives
of their business units; share detailed compliance
information with the committee members;
implement reliable processes to strengthen
compliance risk management within their
business units; and participate in all affairs of
the committee.
Our Executive Compliance Committee

We also maintain an Executive Compliance
Committee. This committee provides direction
for the Compliance Organization, and consists
of the CEO, the CEOs direct reports, and other
designees as appropriate. The Executive
Compliance Committee provides oversight and
approval of the initiatives of the Compliance
Organization; approves certain company policies,
procedures and strategies related to compliance
risk management; reviews compliance risk
assessments; and allocates necessary resources
to improve compliance education, processes,
and technologies.
Preventing Corrupt Business Practices
Tyson Foods values the foundation upon which
we have established our ethics and compliance
program, including:
Our Core Values and Code of Conduct;
An ethical culture of doing whats right;
Comprehensive governance oversight and
accountability;
The development and implementation of
applicable policies and procedures;
Extensive education and communication
strategies;
Internal controls and auditing practices; and
Confidential reporting mechanisms.
This foundation is applicable to all of our
operations and business units. Periodic and
meaningful risk assessments help us sustain
and continually improve the overall performance
and strength of our ethics and compliance
program. For example, as a result of these
assessments, we have developed resources,
training, and internal controls that help manage
risks in the areas of fraud, corruption, and

misconduct. In particular, our anti-corruption
processes have evolved as our international
presence continues to grow. It now includes
established protocols that reach Tyson Foods
distributors, consultants, and brokers.
Additionally, in 2008, all business unit leaders
and key personnel involved in our International
groups business received training on anti-bribery
and anti-corruption laws as well as internal
procedures and expectations. In 2009, through
a blended learning process of both Web-based
and facilitator-led training, we expanded this
effort to include all management Team Members.
Precautionary Approach
The precautionary principle, as defined by
Article 15 of the Rio Principles established at
the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development in 1992, states that where
there are threats of serious or irreversible
damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall
not be used as a reason for postponing costeffective measures to prevent environmental
degradation. Tyson Foods evaluates and
manages environmental risks under its
Environmental Management System. This
approach includes data and guidance from
environmental regulatory agencies, academia,
and industry associations.
6.2 COMPANY STRATEGY AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

With our talented, diverse, and high-performing
team, we will drive performance in a winning,
highly accountable culture reflective of our
Core Values. We continue to manage our
company for the long term by focusing on
our four strategies, which includes:
Create innovative and insight-driven food
solutions: Discover and sell market-leading
products and services to grow Tyson Foods
brand equity and help our customers
succeed through our commitment to joint
value creation.
Optimize commodity businesses and manage
margins: Emphasize cost focus in operations,
manage margins, and maximize revenue by
capitalizing on scale, yield, pricing, product
mix, and services.
Build a multinational enterprise: Accelerate
expansion in cost-competitive regions and
markets with the greatest growth potential,
as well as increase and diversify U.S. exports.
Revolutionize the conversion of raw materials
and by-products into high-margin initiatives:
Commercialize opportunities outside the
core business, such as creating renewable
energy from fat and developing other
technologically advanced platforms from
materials such as feathers and other animal
by-products.
Fiscal Year 2008 and 2009 Financial

Performance
Below, we offer an overview of our financial
performance in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 by
operational business segments.
Chicken
Fiscal year 2008 and the first half of fiscal
year 2009 were difficult for our company. Our
operating results were negatively impacted
by high grain costs and net losses on our
commodity risk-management activities related
to grain and energy purchases. As a result
of more stable input costs and improved
operational execution, our performance
improved in the second half of fiscal year
2009. Operating margins in the first half of
fiscal year 2009 were negative 7.2 percent,
while the second half improved to positive
3.5 percent.
Beef
In fiscal year 2008, our beef segment operating
results were better than fiscal year 2007 as
operating margins significantly improved in the
latter half of the year. Excluding a $560 million
non-cash goodwill impairment charge, our
fiscal year 2009 operating results doubled as
compared to fiscal year 2008. We sustained our
operational improvements made in fiscal year
2008 and continue to have a strong performance,
which shows in our fiscal year 2009 operating
results.
Pork
In fiscal year 2008, we achieved a record
operating income of $280 million, an increase
of $135 million as compared to fiscal year
2007. This performance was due to adequate
hog supplies and strong domestic and export
demand. While our fiscal year 2009 operating
income was down as compared to the record
year we had in fiscal year 2008, we still had
solid operating earnings of $160 million, or an
operating margin of 4.7 percent, with a strong
demand for our products and an adequate
supply of hogs.
Prepared Foods
Capital Structure
Our operating income declined in fiscal year

2008 as compared to fiscal year 2007 due to
increased raw material costs, partially offset by
increased average sales prices. In fiscal year
2009, however, we had improvements in our
sales volume, which led to operating margins
of 4.7 percent. In addition, we made several
operational improvements that allow us to run
our plants with greater efficiency.
In fiscal year 2008, we raised more than $740

million in capital by issuing 22.4 million shares
of Class A stock in a public offering and $458
million of 3.25 percent Convertible Senior Notes
due October 15, 2013. The net proceeds were
used for the net cost of the related Convertible
Note Hedge and Warrant Transactions, the
repayment of our borrowings under the accounts
receivable securitization facility, and other
general corporate purposes. Both of these
actions were in our long-term
best interest and allowed us
to be comfortable in making
several international acquisitions.
In March 2009, we successfully
completed two important
transactions for our capital
structure. We replaced our
then existing $1.0 billion
revolving credit facility set
to expire in fiscal 2010 with
a new $1.0 billion revolving
credit facility which expires in
March 2012. This new credit
facility is secured by the
companys cash, accounts
receivable, and inventory and is also guaranteed

by substantially all of the companys domestic
subsidiaries. Based on our current and future
expected cash balances, we do not expect
any usage under this facility except for letters
of credit support, and as a result, we do not
expect to be subject to its fixed charge ratios.
In addition, we completed an offering of $810
million of senior notes due in 2014. We used
the proceeds from the notes offering to repay
borrowings and terminate commitments under
our $600 million accounts receivables facility.
The notes offering and new credit facility
accomplished three important goals for our
capital structure: ample liquidity, financial
flexibility and the paying down of debt.
Fiscal Year 2010 Outlook*
We believe fiscal year 2010 will show an
improvement over fiscal year 2009. We believe
demand for protein, especially in foodservice,
should improve as the economy improves,
and we will strive to increase sales, gain market
share, and improve operating margins.
Additionally:
Pork
Chicken
We expect to see a gradual decline in hog

supplies through the first half of fiscal year
2010, which will accelerate into the second
half, resulting in industry slaughter slightly
higher than 2007. We believe, however, we will
have adequate supplies in the regions in which
we operate. We will manage our spreads by
continuing to control our costs and maximizing
our revenues.
At the end of fiscal year 2009, industry pullet

placements were down 5 to 6 percent as a
result of weaker demand. We expect, however,
demand will improve as we get further into
fiscal year 2010, and we expect the pricing
environment to improve, aided by cold storage
inventories, which are down relative to the
levels we have seen over the past several
years. Currently, we expect to see grain costs
down as compared to fiscal year 2009.
Additionally, we will continue to focus on
making operational improvements to help
maximize our margins.
Beef
While we expect a reduction in cattle supplies
of 1 to 2 percent in fiscal year 2010, we do not
expect a significant change in the fundamentals
of our beef business, as it relates to fiscal year
2009. We expect adequate supplies to operate
our plants. We will manage our spreads by
maximizing our revenues through product mix,
minimizing our operating costs, while keeping
our focus on quality and customer service.
Prepared Foods
Raw material costs will likely increase in fiscal
year 2010, but we have made some changes in
our sales contracts that move us further away
from fixed-price contracts and more toward
formula pricing, which will better enable us to
absorb rising raw material costs. With the
changes we have made with our sales contracts,
and the operational efficiencies we made during
fiscal year 2009, we expect strong results in
fiscal year 2010.
Moreover, we are integrating recent international
acquisitions and expect them to begin contributing
in 2010.
*Certain information contained in this section of the sustainability report includes

forward-looking statements, including statements related to projected performance,
livestock supplies, demand for our products, and amount of debt. Historical results
may not be indicative of future results. We wish to caution readers not to place undue
reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made.
Want To Know More?

For financial information on Tyson Foods,
please visit our Investor Relations Web site at
http://ir.tyson.com. There you will find financial
statements, SEC filings, annual reports,
presentations to investors, and much more.
We encourage you to explore this Web site for
a comprehensive fiscal look at Tyson Foods.
6.3 OUR SUPPLY PARTNERS

Tyson Foods is committed to responsible, legal,
and sustainable procurement practices. We
encourage our supply partners to recognize the
role they play in helping us assure our customers
and consumers of the safety and quality of our
products. Each year, all Tyson Foods Team
Members, including members of the Board of
Directors, are required to affirm their commitment
to the principles described in our Code of
Conduct and supported through our Doing
Whats Right program. We view our supply
partners as a critical element in fulfilling our
commitment to Doing Whats Right. Accordingly,
in appropriate circumstances we strive to
include requirements in our supply contracts
that emphasize the sustainability objectives
that are shared with our 7,500 supply partners*.
During fiscal years 2008 and 2009, Tyson

Foods spent approximately $7.2 billion on
goods and services. We believe it is important
to support the economic development of
communities by purchasing goods and services
from locally-based supply partners who are
located in the same county, an adjoining county,
or the same state as a Tyson Foods operation.
Our most recent twelve-month analysis of
indirect spending, which includes items such
as services, maintenance and repairs, plant
expenses and supplies, equipment, and fuel,
indicated that $1 of every $3 dollars spent with
supply partners is spent with locally-based
suppliers.
We also seek to enter into relationships with

supply partners who share values similar to
Tyson Foods, especially in the areas of:
Legal and regulatory compliance;
Product safety and quality food products;
Animal well-being;
Labor and human rights;
Environmental, health and safety;
Sustainability; and
Ethical and honest business transactions.
In our Request for Proposal process, we include
and evaluate key elements related to sustainability
as part of the selection criteria for designated
procurements. Many of our major supply partners
maintain documented, formal sustainability
programs. In 2007 and 2008, Tyson Foods
awarded Supplier of the Year Awards to honor
supply partners that had demonstrated
exceptional focus on value, cost savings,
service metrics, innovation and design, diversity

efforts, sustainability practices, and technical
support.
We are also committed to continual improvement
within our supply chain and procurement
process. For example, we regularly host strategic
meetings with major suppliers to discuss key
business successes and opportunities. We
routinely conduct supplier satisfaction surveys
to identify ways to further enhance our
relationships with our supply partners. Other
examples of our commitment to continual
improvement within our supply chain and
procurement process are shared below.
In 2008, Tyson Foods launched an initiative

to improve our Purchase-To-Pay (P2P)
process. This initiative will result in a system
and various process enhancements designed
to reduce wasted time, materials, and effort.
The enhancements planned will bring Tyson
Foods supply chain procurement process
in better alignment with best practices. We
expect this initiative to be finalized in 2010.
In 2009, we revised and consolidated our
purchasing policies and procedures. The
revisions and consolidation promotes greater
efficiency in our sourcing process and
emphasizes the ongoing need to do business
with the best-value supply partners.
We began developing, in 2009, a Supplier
Code of Conduct that sets forth supplier
expectations regarding the values that have
been shared above. We will finalize this
document and share this code with our
supply partners in fiscal year 2010.
In fiscal year 2009, we implemented an

internal Contract Management System. This
system enhances our communication with
our Tyson Legal Team and our supply partners,
and allows us to store all of our purchasingrelated documentation electronically.
In 2008, we developed an annual purchasing
training program. This program helps assure
the professional growth and development
of our purchasing talent. It helps maintain
consistency in our purchasing practices
and provides guidance on key topics, such
as the basics of sourcing, negotiation, and
developing and implementing contracts.
*Note: We rely on many third-party resources who are
independent contractors for various goods and services.
This includes, but is not limited to contractors, consultants,
and suppliers, and their associated employees, agents,
and subcontractors. For simplicity, we refer to these thirdparty resources as supply partners in this report.
6.4 SUPPORTING THE FAMILY FARMER

Most of our chicken is raised by independent
poultry producers. Currently, Tyson contracts
with more than 6,000 independent producers.
There is also a small number of companyowned chicken farms.
Producing for Tyson Foods is a steady source
of income for farms that otherwise have to deal
with the uncertainty of fluctuating prices for
agricultural crops and produce. Our contractual
relationships with producers enable many
families to remain on farms instead of potentially
being forced off by economic pressures. We
provide farmers with state-of-the-art veterinary
support, scientifically formulated feed, and
technical assistance, with Tyson Foods technical
advisors visiting farms typically on a weekly
basis. We provide producers with information
on sound environmental practices, optimal
lighting and ventilation for chicken, and disease
control. We also strongly promote animal wellbeing at all life stages. None of our broilers is
raised in cages at any stage of its life. Above
all, we strive to support independent producers
in their efforts to run their businesses wisely
and to be independent and sustainable
enterprises.
Unlike our vertically integrated chicken business,
Tyson Foods beef and pork operations depend
upon independent livestock producers to supply
our plants. The plants operated by Tyson Fresh
Meats are strategically located near large
supplies of high quality cattle and hogs.
The company buys millions of cattle and

hogs in the U.S. each year from approximately
5,000 independent cattle producers and 7,500
independent pork producers to ensure a steady
supply for our eight beef plants and six pork
plants.
Tyson Fresh Meats supports the efforts of
independent cattle and hog producers to
ensure the livestock they raise are properly
handled.
To ensure a steady supply of livestock, Tyson

Fresh Meats maintains an extensive buying
network. Approximately 60 cattle buyers and
120 hog buyers make competitive bids on
the cattle and hogs that meet the companys
specifications for high quality beef and pork.
6.5 RENEWABLE PRODUCTS

Tyson Foods is finding innovative and creative
ways to convert animal byproducts into fuel,
pet food products, and other high-margin
commercial products. Our Renewable Products
Division is leading our strategy to revolutionize
the conversion of raw materials and by-products
into high-margin businesses. Our efforts in this
area currently involve four growth platforms:
Renewable energy;
Pet products;
Biotech; and
Nutraceuticals (nutritional supplements).
Renewable Energy
Dynamic Fuels, a 50/50 joint venture between
Tyson Foods and Syntroleum Corporation,
broke ground in October 2008 on a plant that
will convert low-grade, inedible fats and greases
into renewable transportation fuels for the
military and civilian markets. The facility, located
in Geismar, Louisiana, is currently scheduled
to begin production in 2010, with an expected
total capacity of 75 million gallons per year.
Unlike the traditional ethanol and biodiesel

industries, which use food ingredients such
as corn and soybean oil to produce fuel, the
Dynamic Fuels project will primarily use nonfood grade animal fats produced or procured
by Tyson, such as beef tallow, pork lard, chicken
fat, and cooking grease. The fuel produced
by the venture will offer the same benefits of
synthetic fuels derived from coal or natural gas
while providing substantial performance and
environmental advantages over petroleumbased fuels. These benefits include higher
cetane levels, which are a measure of combustion
quality, and superior thermal stability, making
it effective for advanced military applications.
In addition, as a replacement for traditional
petroleum fuel, this fuel should reduce particulate
emissions by 96 percent and lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 80
percent.
Pet Products
Americans love their pets and are concerned
about the food their pets eat. In April 2009,
Tyson Foods and Iowa-based Kemin Industries,
Inc., announced the opening of a new
manufacturing operation that produces pet
food flavor enhancers, known as palatants,
under the PalasuranceTM brand.
The manufacturing initiative is the result of
a strategic alliance Tyson Foods and Kemin
Industries formed in 2008 to develop,
manufacture, market, and sell liquid and dry
palatants to pet food companies. The goal is to
provide cost competitive, high-quality pet food
palatants.
The new palatant operation is located at our
flagship animal by-product facility in Scranton,
Arkansas, which is centrally located to our
Arkansas chicken processing plants. The
operation boasts state-of-the-art equipment
and automated controls designed to produce
palatants with the highest regard for product
safety and performance. Production began in
March 2009 and is a 24-hour operation supported
by the Tyson Team at Scranton.
Also in March 2009, Tyson Foods and New

Jersey-based Freshpet announced an alliance
focused on bringing to consumers new and
innovative, refrigerated, fresh food for pets.
This is a natural extension of our expertise in
making innovative refrigerated food products.
Capitalizing on the trend toward humanization
of pets, we believe our ability to leverage all of
our food knowledge to bring fresh refrigerated
products to this member of the family will
present a step change in innovation that has
not been seen
in this category.
The alliance will
continue the
innovation and growth of the refrigerated, fresh
pet food business. We believe this can be
achieved by combining Freshpets innovation
and brand-building skills with our knowledge
of product development, logistics, and
manufacturing, as well as our supply of chicken,
beef, and pork products. Each pound of
Freshpet Select product contains seven ounces
of chicken, beef, or turkey and two ounces of
liver as its major protein source. Additionally
there is one egg, two ounces of vegetables,
and one ounce of brown rice. The product is
fortified with 18 essential vitamins and minerals,

and contains no corn, wheat, gluten, fillers,
by-products, or preservatives. The product is
gently cooked and quickly cooled to eliminate
any harmful bacteria or parasites, and is never
frozen. This results in a better nutrition profile,
improved digestibility, and enhanced flavor. All
of this leads to a healthier, happier pet.
In an effort to meet consumer demand for
American-made, natural pet treats, a subsidiary
of Tyson Foods recently launched a line of dog
chews. On February 5, 2010, Tyson Pet Products,
Inc., introduced 100-percent natural True ChewsTM
dog treats, which are being made at a recently
reopened plant in Independence, Iowa. The
company is offering a variety of different chews
such as chicken fillet, pork ear, and beef bully
stick. The chicken, beef, and pork used in
True Chews treats are sourced from various
company locations in the United States. The
raw materials are slow roasted and have a
natural hickory aroma. The finished products
are protein-rich and
rawhide-free, with no
fillers.
Nutraceuticals /Supplements
Foods containing nutritional supplements are
growing in popularity as Baby Boomers age.
With our bone and cartilage supply, we are
uniquely positioned to supply proprietary
chondroitin and collagen products through
our relationship with BioCell Technology, LLC.
Major nutritional supplement and food
manufacturers market finished products made
with these ingredients. Additional opportunities
are being explored to expand further this
business platform during 2009 through other raw
materials and value-added partnerships.
Biotech Products
Tyson Foods also recognizes the versatility and
functionality of keratin protein from chicken
feathers. As part of the biotech platform, we
are exploring potential partnerships and
commercialization opportunities for keratinbased products including health and beauty
solutions, adhesives, plastics, and nonwovens.
All of these products will bring added value to
our company while supporting our sustainability
efforts.
6.6 BUILDING A Multinational ENTERPRISE

As detailed in our company strategy, we
are committed to building a multinational
enterprise. The emerging middle class in several
parts of the world are contributing to an increase
in the global consumption of meat and poultry
products such as chicken, beef, and pork.
Globally, meat consumption is forecast to
grow by nearly two percent per year between
2007 and 2017. This represents an increase
of almost 50 million metric tons of meat. This
increase will be due to improved income levels,
diet change, and population growth.
Since 2001, Tyson Foods has had a presence

in China with Tyson Da Long, a small chicken
further processing joint venture. With a population
of 1.3 billion and chain restaurants opening at a
rate of one every 18 hours, the Chinese market
needs more poultry production. Annual per
capita chicken consumption in China is about
20 pounds per person, compared to 89 pounds
in the United States. If consumption increased
by only 10 pounds per person, it would be
equivalent to all of Tyson Foods annual United
States production.
The global consumption of poultry is growing

at the fastest rate, followed by pork and then
beef. Consumer preference for poultry is due
to several factors. Two of the key factors are
that chicken is the most efficient of the meat
proteins in feed conversion, and that chicken
is accepted by most religions. These changes
in global protein demand are creating new
opportunities for global food companies like
Tyson Foods.
To serve this growing market, in 2008 Tyson

Foods created Jiangsu Tyson Foods to produce
fresh chicken sold under the Tyson brand for
the Shanghai retail market. In 2009, we entered
a second joint venture, Shandong Tyson Xinchang
Foods, a fully integrated chicken and duck
operation. Tyson Xinchang will have a production
capacity of more than 600,000 birds per day
and further processing operations with export
certifications for Japan, Southeast Asia, and
Europe.
In fiscal year 2009, Tyson Foods exported

chicken, beef, pork, and/or prepared foods to
more than 90 countries. Increasing exports,
diversifying our export markets and building
in-country production are essential to the
companys long-term growth. In recent years,
we made several acquisitions and entered joint
ventures in key locations that offer the right
climate for poultry production, a large population,
ample labor force, access to corn and soybean
meal and a cost-of-production advantage.
Another important feature of these markets is
their emerging middle class. As incomes rise,
one of the first lifestyle changes people make is
to add protein to their diets.
In 2008, Tyson Foods acquired three poultry

companies in southern Brazil. One of these
operations is fully vertically integrated, and two
are partially vertically integrated. All three can
supply Brazils growing domestic markets in
addition to serving Europe, Japan, and other
markets currently not available to U.S. chicken
imports. By combining these three companies
into Tyson do Brazil, we have created an
operation with modern technology and an
experienced management team. The production
capacity of Tyson do Brazil will be approximately
800,000 chickens per day.
The third key location for Tyson Foods

international growth is India, which has a
population of more than one billion people.
While per capita chicken consumption is less
than five pounds a year, its annual growth rate
of more than 10 percent is among the highest
in the world. In 2008, Tyson Foods acquired
majority ownership of one of Indias leading
branded chicken companies. In addition to
serving the foodservice market, Godrej Tyson
Foods produces retail fresh chicken under the
Real Good Chicken brand and further processed
chicken under the Yummiez brand. The combined
production of the two plants in Mumbai and
Bangalore is approximately 60,000 chickens
per day.
Tyson Foods has had a presence in Mexico for
20 years and currently holds the number three
market share position. We are number one
in value-added chicken production and have
reached full capacity in our plants in a market
that continues to grow. Our longer-term strategy
could include acquiring or building more assets
to solidify Tyson de Mexicos market position in
the northern part of the county and expand into
the central region.
Chicken isnt the only protein Tyson Foods
produces outside the United States. In 2007,
we entered a joint venture to create the first
vertically integrated beef operation in Argentina.
The South American country is the worlds fifth
leading beef producer and the second leading
beef exporter, and is known for its low beef
production costs and high-quality breeds of
cattle.
6.7 PUBLIC POLICY AND POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Tyson Foods works on regulatory and legislative
policy issues that can have an impact on our
business. We do this through our own involvement
as an individual company and through
membership in industry associations. Tyson
representatives from all parts of our company
impact public policy through direct interaction
with policymakers, as well as through participation
on industry committees and advisory boards.
We believe this interaction ensures that our
views on key issues are heard and shapes
sound public policy. We see our engagement
in both the policy and political processes as an
important part of corporate sustainability.
Priority Issues
The following are among the most significant
recent public-policy issues for our company in
2009:
Balanced Food and Fuel Policies: We
support the development and use of
renewable fuels as a way to help reduce
our dependence on foreign oil. However,
public policy should not promote the
production of renewable fuels, particularly
corn-derived ethanol, at the expense of
either our industry or consumers. In 2008,

we supported a reduction in the Renewable
Fuels Standard, petitioned by the Governor
of Texas, because rising grain prices were
negatively affecting our business and leading
to higher food prices. In 2009, we opposed
a request, pending with the Environmental
Protection Agency, to allow higher blends
of ethanol in gasoline. We believe that this
policy change could raise corn prices and
could have a potentially negative impact
on motor vehicle and equipment engine
performance. We are committed to working
with Congress, and the current Administration,
on policies that balance the promotion of
biofuels with the interests of both our industry
and consumers.
Immigration Reform: We believe comprehensive
immigration reform is necessary, and therefore,
closely monitor the issue. We value Team
Members who are immigrantslegal
immigrants. Our Team Members, immigrant
and American born, want their children to
enjoy greater opportunities and the stability
that enables families to stay together and
thrive. We feel that a comprehensive
immigration reform bill should include border

security, an improved employer verification
system, a temporary worker program with
a market-based regulator, and provide a
pathway for citizens to earn legal status.
Ensuring Food Safety: We are committed
to working with the federal government
to ensure the safest possible food supply
for consumers in the United States (U.S.)
and around the world. Issues around food
safety, whether in the Congress or before
federal agencies, are top priorities for our
company.
International Trade: We export protein to
more than 90 countries, and our business
relies on a rules-based trading system that
ensures fair-market access for all participants.
We support trade policies that expand
export opportunities and remove trade
barriers to protein exports that are not
consistent with established international
health and safety standards.
Corporate Contributions
Through campaign contributions to candidates
for the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, the
Tyson Political Action Committee (TYPAC)
helps build and maintain relationships with
elected officials who support our industry and
company. They understand our business and
are grateful that we provide more than 100,000
jobs. They appreciate the skill and care we
dedicate to producing safe, delicious, and
nutritious foods at affordable prices.
Through August 2009, TYPAC contributed
$86,000 to candidates for federal offices for
the 2009-2010 election cycle. During the
2007-2008 election cycle, TYPAC contributed
$218,002 to candidates and political action
committees. TYPAC does not base its
contributions on political party affiliation. As
indicated in the preceding paragraph, we seek
to support candidates who understand and
appreciate our business and its importance to
American consumers.
Memberships and Associations
Tyson Foods is a member of numerous industry
groups and associations. We work with these
groups and associations because they represent
the food processing industry and business
community in discussions with governmental

agencies and other stakeholders. They are
also instrumental in helping to reach industry
consensus on important national policy issues.
We have company representatives on the
boards and committees of many of these
groups and associations to ensure we have
an avenue to voice questions, concerns, and
opinions about policy or related activities.
Below is a partial listing of the industry groups,
associations, and partnerships of which we
are members. Those in bold text are global
associations. We also mention our membership
in industry groups, associations, and partnerships
in other sections of our 2009 sustainability
report.
American Association of Analytical Chemists,
American Commodity Distribution Association,
American Culinary Federation Chef and Child
Foundation, American Dietetic Association,
American Feed Industry Association,
American Frozen Foods Institute, American
Leather Chemists Association, American Meat
Institute, American Meat Science Association,
American Society for Quality, Ammonia Safety
and Training Institute, Animal Protein Producers
Industry, Applied Sustainability Center,
Arkansas Association of Food Protection,
Arkansas Environmental Federation, British

Retail Consortium, Beef Information Food
Safety Council, Center for Business Ethics,
Equal Employment Advisory Council, Ethics
and Compliance Officers Association, Food
Safety Consortium, Global Food Safety
Initiative, Illinois River Watershed Partnership,
Industry Liaison Group, Institute of Food
Technologists, Institute of Internal Auditors,
International Association for Food Protection,
International HACCP Alliance, Leather
Industries of America, National Association of
Meat Purveyors, National Business Group on
Health, National Cattlemens Beef Association,
National Chicken Council, National Frozen and
Refrigerated Foods Association, National Meat
Association, National Pork Board, National
Pork Producers Council, National Renderers
Association, National Safety Council, National
Tannery Association, National Turkey Federation, Research Chefs Association, School
Nutrition Association, Society of Corporate
Compliance and Ethics, Society for Human
Resource Management, U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, U.S. Meat Export Federation,
U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council.
6.8 ETHANOL AND ANIMAL FEED

Tyson Foods supports the development and
use of renewable fuels as a way to help reduce
U.S. dependence on foreign oil. However,
public policy should not promote the production
of renewable fuels, particularly corn-derived
ethanol, at the expense of our company, our
customers, or consumers. Corn and soybean
costs have a significant impact on our business.
On average, corn costs make up 47 percent
of the total cost of raising a live bird, while
soybean meal contributes nearly 20 percent
to the total cost. Corn and soybean meal are
also significant feed components for cattle and
hogs, and these costs have significant impact
on the business of the independent cattle and
hog producers who supply us with market hogs
and finished cattle.
In 2005, and again in 2007, legislation was

enacted that mandated the use of specific
volumes of renewable fuels. We believe these
mandates, which had the most immediate
impact on the production of corn ethanol,
were a significant factor in both a sharp rise
in corn prices and increasing volatility in the
agricultural markets. By mid-2008, our costs
for feeding corn into our broiler operations had
doubled since July 2006 from $2.90 per bushel
to nearly $6.00 per bushel. In fiscal year 2008,
we absorbed $593 million in increased grain
costs over fiscal year 2007. These increases in
input costs, resulting from government policies
pitting food production against fuel production,
directly affect our companys profitability. In
2008, independent hog producers were receiving
high market prices for live hogs; however, they
struggled to make a profit due to high feed costs.
Experts estimate that approximately 40 percent

of the U.S. corn crop will be diverted from food
and feed to fuel production by 2015 under
current policies. Moving forward, we believe
the current mandates should be reevaluated
and that federal renewable-fuel policies should
focus on next-generation renewable fuels that
do not rely on food-based feedstocks. This
policy focus is good for the country and for our
companys long-term sustainability.
7.0 OUR APPROACH TO SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING

Tyson Foods 2009 sustainability report, Rooted
in Tradition, Growing Responsibly, covers fiscal
years 2008 (September 30, 2007 September
27, 2008) and 2009 (September 28, 2008
October 3, 2009). As with our 2005 and 2007
sustainability reports, titled Living Our Core
Values and Its In Our Nature respectively, this
third biennial report provides a comprehensive
and transparent review of our commitment
to, and progress towards, economic growth,
environmental stewardship, and social progress.
This report details our economic, environmental,

and social performance for our United States
operations, with additional information provided
on select International operations, subsidiaries,
and joint ventures. Unless otherwise noted, the
scope of this report does not include economic,
environmental, or social data from suppliers,
independent producers, external organizations,
or activities over which the company has limited
control or influence.
7.1 Material Issues

This report is intended to cover the issues we
believe are most material to Tyson Foods. We
define these issues as those with the potential
to positively and negatively influence, both now
and in the future, the:
Progress and growth of our global society;
Protection of the environment and
conservation of natural resources; and
The companys finances or operations.
In addition, we also consider those issues that
are of concern to stakeholders or that can
substantially influence the assessments and
decisions of stakeholders, to be material.
In an effort to identify the sustainability issues
of greatest importance to our company and
stakeholders, we participated in numerous
stakeholder-engagement activities during
fiscal years 2008 and 2009. This includes
focused stakeholder workgroups; customer
presentations; roundtable meetings; discussions
with academia and industry associations;
performance and perception surveys; reviews
of internal strategies, policies, and management
systems; and formal reviews of regulatory
requirements, published research, and media
reports. We also considered specific materiality

comments received from both internal and
external sources with respect to the content of
our 2007 sustainability report.
In addition, as with our 2005 and 2007 reports,
we followed the guidance offered by the Global
Reporting Initiatives (GRI) G3 Sustainability
Reporting Guidelines to define and develop
our 2009 sustainability report. We feel these
guidelines aid in providing a balanced
representation of our material issues. These
guidelines also offer a framework for sustainability
reporting that organizations can adopt regardless
of their size, industry sector, or geographic
location.
As verified by both internal auditors and GRI,
this report meets the B application level. An
index providing details on the GRI indicators
addressed in this report is available on page
99. For further information about GRI, visit
www.globalreporting.org.
Based on our stakeholder interactions, formal
reviews, and the guidance offered by the GRIs
G3 Guidelines, we have verified the following
as our material issues (in no particular order):
Blending Our Business and Sustainability

Strategies
Our commitment to sustainability has a long
history and is evident in our daily actions.
Simply said, we take action on critical issues
such as hunger relief, food safety, environmental
protection, resource conservation, animal
well-being, ethical business practices, the
health and safety of our Team Members, and
returning a profit to our shareholders. We are
fully committed to maintaining our sustainability
direction and to ensuring economic,
environmental, and social issues remain a key
consideration of our business decisions.
Retaining an Exceptional Team
Our employees, whom we call Team Members,
are our most valued resource. We are committed
to attracting, developing, and retaining a
diverse group of talented Team Members and
to creating a workplace that allows each Team
Member to contribute to the collective success
of our company. Our programs and initiatives
related to diversity and inclusion, recruiting,
compensation and benefits, and professional
development are key to fulfilling this commitment,
especially in todays challenging economic

climate.
Ensuring Team Member Health and Safety
We regard workplace health and safety as
a core indicator of our business success.
Accordingly, we promote a culture that values
the health, safety, and well-being of our Team
Members. The foundation for this culture is our
Core Values, which call for us to provide a
safe work environment for our Team Members.
We are committed to maintaining a safe and
healthy work environment that enables our
Team Members to work free of occupational
injury and illness.
Supporting Local Communities and Helping
Those in Need
Our community consists of many people we
interact with on a regular basis, including our
customers, consumers, and neighbors. We
understand we have a responsibility to support
the communities surrounding our operations
as well as those in need. Through monetary
contributions, product donations, partnerships,
volunteerism, and other initiatives, our Team

Members exemplify Tyson Foods commitment
to supporting local communities and helping
those in need.
Minimizing Our Environmental Footprint
Our continued business success is based
on numerous factors, one of which is our
environmental performance. Our Core Values
call for us to serve as stewards of the animals,
land, and environment entrusted to us. We are
committed to aggressively, and responsibly,
minimizing our environmental footprint and to
conserving natural resources through efficient
use, careful planning, and continual improvement.
Providing Safe, Nutritious Food Products
Successful companies know their future depends
on providing the safe, quality products customers
and consumers expect and deserve. Nothing is
more important to our business than maintaining
confidence in the Tyson Foods brand. We
are committed to maintaining and continually
improving the systems and practices that allow
us to provide safe, nutritious food products and
uphold an unsurpassed food-safety record.
Protecting the Well-Being of Our Animals

Producing a high-quality food product begins
with ensuring the health and well-being of the
animals we grow, purchase, and process. We
have a long-standing commitment to the wellbeing and proper handling of the animals used
in our food products. This is not only the right
thing to do; it is also an important moral and
ethical obligation.
Ensuring the Profitability of Our Company
Although we have faced difficult poultry market
conditions, beef supply and demand challenges,
and higher than average live hog prices, we are
committed to maintaining a sense of urgency
in returning our company to profitability. We
remain focused on conducting our business
activities in an ethical manner while creating
innovative and insight-driven food choices,
optimizing commodity business models, building
a multinational enterprise, and converting raw
materials and by-products into high margin
initiatives.
7.2 Growing Successful Partnerships Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder engagement is an important part
of Tyson Foods sustainability activities and
our overall business success. We recognize
internal and external stakeholder engagement
can help better define our business strategy;
sharpen our decision-making; and enhance
our companys economic, environmental, and
social performance. Accordingly, we (1) seek to
understand the perspectives and needs of our
stakeholders, (2) set expectations for areas of
mutual concern, (3) act upon these expectations,
and (4) ensure our stakeholders remain informed
of our progress.
Every facet of our company and its operations
has potential to affect, or be affected by,
stakeholders. To better align our business
practices with stakeholder expectations, we
maintain open dialogue and foster collaborative
relationships with those individuals and groups
who have an interest in, or are affected by, our
company and its operations. We have identified
the following individuals and groups as our key
stakeholders:
Team Members and prospective Team
Members;
Shareholders and potential investors;
The Board of Directors;
Customers and consumers;
Local, state, and federal government

agencies;
Nongovernmental organizations;
Local community members and leaders;
The media;
Suppliers, independent producers, and
other business partners;
Wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint
ventures; and
Multicultural organizations, academia, and
industry associations.
Stakeholder engagement activities occur in
virtually every aspect of Tyson Foods operations
and business transactions. Selection and
engagement with stakeholders is conducted
primarily in a decentralized manner, occurring
as a part of normal business. For example,
account management teams are responsible
for identifying and engaging with customers,
and members of our External Relations
department interact with elected officials, the
media, community leaders, and other members
of the public.
Tyson Foods engages with its stakeholders

in formal settings as well. At the local level,
for example, facility managers participate in
stakeholder engagement through strategic
community-involvement plans, donations,
community outreach, and regional recruiting
programs. At the corporate level, Tyson Foods
collaborates with representatives from
government, academia, and industry to discuss
emerging issues such as product life-cycle
analysis and sustainability reporting. For example,
in 2007, Tyson Foods along with nine other
companies and ten stakeholder groups, began
collaborating with the Global Reporting Initiative
(GRI) to develop sector-specific sustainability
reporting standards for the food processing
industry. GRIs vision is that reporting on social,
environmental, and economic performance
become as routine and comparable as financial
reporting. The food-processing-sector supplement
will better enable companies and stakeholders
in the food processing industry to more accurately
measure and communicate sustainability
progress. The finalized sector supplement will
be released in the spring of 2010. Tyson Foods
participation in the development of these
sustainability reporting standards is just one
more way in which the company is taking
a leadership role in sustainability within the
food industry.
To the right we offer additional examples of our

stakeholder engagement process, including
key stakeholder topics and concerns and how
we respond to those concerns.
Tyson Foods stakeholder group is diverse
and includes those with both minimal and
extensive knowledge of our processes,
company, and overall industry. Given the
size, nature, and complexity of our company,
however, we recognize this report may not
comprehensively meet the information needs
of all our stakeholders. Stakeholders needing
additional information are encouraged to visit
Tyson Foods Web site at www.tyson.com or
e-mail Tyson Foods at sustainability@tyson.com.
7.3 Restatements and Changes in Reporting

Restatements and Changes in Reporting
Water Usage
The following information appeared in the

companys 2007 sustainability report and, after
further review, is amended and restated in the
companys 2009 sustainability report.
Tyson Foods reported its overall water usage

was 28.2 billion gallons in fiscal year 2006 and
27.5 billion gallons in fiscal year 2007 in its 2007
sustainability report. A year-end performance
review conducted at the close of fiscal year
2008 revealed discrepancies between water
usage and discharge amounts. Accordingly, the
water usage amounts for fiscal years 2006 and
2007 have been recalculated and restated in
this report.
Raised Without Antibiotics

In our 2007 sustainability report, we discussed
our AnytizersTM snacks and fresh chicken
Raised Without Antibiotics. Our Raised
Without Antibiotics chicken initiative has been
suspended due to labeling challenges. As such,
we recalled and reprinted our 2007 sustainability
report in May 2008, removing all references to
Raised Without Antibiotics. If the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) develops clear guidance
on this labeling issue in the future, we will
evaluate it before making a decision on future
marketing efforts.
OSHA Rates
In its 2007 sustainability report, Tyson Foods
Lost Time Rate, Total Recordable Incident
Rate, and Days, Away, Restricted, and Transfer
Rate were reported as 1.18, 12.95, and 8.88
respectively for fiscal year 2007. These rates
were calculated based upon a manual OSHA
300 Log documentation process. In 2007,
Tyson Foods implemented a computerized
Occupational Health and Safety System, and
the companys fiscal year 2007 Lost Time Rate,
Total Recordable Incident Rate, and Days,
Away, Restricted, and Transfer Rate have been
restated to accurately reflect the data reported
by this system.
Moreover, it is important to note the water

usage data shared in this report, as well as
our 2005 and 2007 sustainability reports,
only includes performance data related to our
chicken, beef, and pork processing plants
located in the United States. At this time, we
do not collect water usage data related to our
prepared-foods processing plants. Efforts are
currently underway, however, to begin collecting
this data.
Solid Waste and Recycling Data
Tyson Foods reported it generated 159,342
tons of landfill waste in fiscal year 2006 and
159,064 tons in fiscal year 2007. A year-end
performance review conducted at the close
of fiscal year 2008 revealed discrepancies with
this data. Accordingly, the amount of waste
sent to landfills for fiscal years 2006 and 2007
have been recalculated and restated in the
companys 2009 sustainability report.
national account agreements. For the portion

of Tyson Foods locations serviced by local
vendors that are not part of our national
account agreement, however, we are unable
to provide solid waste and recycling data.
During fiscal year 2010, we will develop a
standard reporting process that all solid waste
and recycling vendors will be able to utilize.
Environmental Fines and Penalties
In its 2007 Sustainability Report, Tyson Foods
reported environmental fines and penalties
totaling $201,096 for fiscal years 2006 and
2007. A discrepancy with this data was revealed
following a year-end performance review
conducted at the close of fiscal year 2009.
Penalties associated with the following incidents
were inadvertently omitted from the 2007
Sustainability Report.
A civil penalty totaling $10,312 for alleged
ground water contamination at our Finney
County, Kansas, beef processing plant; and
An Administrative Consent Order, with a
monetary penalty of $5,500, for failure to
obtain an air construction permit at our
Denison, Iowa, beef processing plant.
There have been no significant changes from
previous reporting periods in the scope,
boundary, or measurement methods applied
in this report.
Moreover, it is important to note the solid

waste and recycling data shared in this report
represents the companys U.S. locations that
manage their solid waste and recyclable
materials through one of the companys
7.4 Data Integrity

To ensure the integrity of our social, environmental,
and financial performance data, we employ a
variety of internal and external measurement
resources and systems.
Social Data
The social performance data shared in this
report is related to Team Member staffing,
compensation and benefits, professional
development, workplace safety, hunger relief,
and community support. This data is collected
from numerous sources including the companys
SAP database; payroll system; Environmental,
Health, and Safety Incident Reporting System;
workers compensation system; public
documents, such as press releases; various
spreadsheets and systems maintained by our
business units; and Tyson Foods 2009 Annual
Report on Form 10-K. Details pertaining to the
scope and limitations of the data points shared
in this report are presented as footnotes
alongside, or adjacent to, the specific data
point.
Environmental Data
Financial Data
The environmental performance data shared in

this report is related to consumption, disposal,
emissions, recycling, and regulatory compliance.
This data is collected from numerous sources
including the companys SAP database,
Electronic Compliance Automation Toolset,
and Environmental, Health, and Safety Incident
Reporting System; statements and performance
reports from utility and service providers; public
documents, such as press releases; and
compliance reports and notifications to and
from federal, state, and local environmental
agencies. Details pertaining to the scope and
limitations of the data points shared in this
report are presented as footnotes alongside,
or adjacent to, the specific data point.
The financial performance data reproduced in

this sustainability report is from Tyson Foods
2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K. The report
describes the companys accounting principles
in detail and is available through our Investor
Relations Web site at http://ir.tyson.com. All
financial information shared in this report is
provided in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted.
Each business unit collects and verifies data
for which it is responsible; some of this data
is verified for regulatory compliance via both
internal and external audit processes. In
addition, internal subject-matter experts
reviewed each section of this report to ensure
completeness and accuracy of the information
presented. Tyson Foods management, along
with its Legal Department, conducted a review
of the information presented in this report and
is responsible for its overall integrity. An external,
third-party has not provided assurance for this
report.
8.0 Global Reporting Initiative Index

Tyson Foods referenced the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 2006 G3
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines during the development of this
report. These voluntary guidelines provide a generally accepted
framework for the reporting of an organizations social, environmental,
and economic performance. To indicate a report is GRI-based, an
organization must declare the level to which they have applied the GRI
reporting framework via the Application Levels system. To meet the
different needs of beginner, intermediate, and advanced reporters, there
are three application levels including C, B, and A. The

reporting levels reflect the coverage of the GRI reporting
framework. A reporting organization can receive a plus (+)
if an external assurance provider verifies the report. For this
report, both Tyson Foods and GRI confirm that the GRI B
application level has been met. The index below provides details on the
GRI indicators addressed in this report. For additional information about
GRI, visit www.globalreporting.org.
STRATEGY AND ANALYSIS

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
1.1
Statement from CEO
1.1;1.2;1.3
Fully
1.2

Key impacts, risks,

and opportunities
1.3; Throughout
Fully
Also see Tyson Foods 2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K.
GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
2.1
Organization name
2.0
Fully
2.2

Primary brands, products,

and/or services
2.0; 2.1; 2.2

Fully

Also see Tyson Foods 2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K and Fiscal
2009 Fact Book.

2.3

Operational structure

2.2

Fully

2009 Fact Book.
2.4

Location of organizations
headquarters
2.0
Fully
2.5

Countries of operation

2.0; 2.3; 6.6

Fully

2009 Fact Book.
2.6

Nature of ownership and

legal form
2.0

Fully

2009 Fact Book.
2.7
Markets served
2.1; 2.2; 6.6
Fully
2.8

Scale of reporting organization

2.0; 2.1; 2.2; 2.3;

3.0; 3.2; 6.2
Fully

2009 Fact Book.
2.9

Significant changes during

reporting period
2.0; 2.3; 6.2;

6.5; 6.6
Fully
2.10

Awards received during

reporting period
Throughout
Fully
Comments
ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE
REPORT PARAMETERS
GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
3.1
Reporting period
7.0
Fully
3.2
Date of most previous report
7.0
Fully
3.3
Reporting cycle
7.0
Fully
3.4

Contact point for questions

about report
7.2

Fully

Questions and comments can be emailed to

sustainability@tyson.com.
3.5

Process for defining report

content
7.1; 7.2
Fully
3.6
Boundary of the report
7.0
Fully
3.7

Limitations on the scope or

boundary of the report
7.0
Fully
3.8

Basis for reporting on

subsidiaries, joint ventures,
leased facilities, etc.
7.0
Fully
3.9

Data measurement techniques

and the basis of calculations
7.4
Fully
3.10

Restatements of information
provided in earlier reports
7.3
Fully
3.11

Significant changes from

previous reporting periods in
the scope, boundary, or
measurement methods applied
7.3
Fully
3.12
GRI overview
7.1
Fully
3.13

External assurance for

the report
7.4
Fully
External assurance has not been provided for this report.
Extent
Reported
Comments
Comments
GOVERNANCE, COMMITMENTS, AND ENGAGEMENT

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
4.1

Organizations governance
structure
3.1; 6.1

Fully

Also visit Tyson Foods Investor Relations Web site

(www.tyson.com/corporate/).
4.2

Roles of the Chairman of the

Board and the CEO
6.1
Fully
4.3

Members of the Board

6.1

Fully


4.4

Mechanisms for shareholders

and employees to provide
recommendations to the Board
3.1; 7.2; 6.1

Fully


GOVERNANCE, COMMITMENTS, AND ENGAGEMENT (cont)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
4.5

Linkage between compensation

for members of the highest
governance body, senior
management, and executives
6.1

Fully


4.6

Process for the Board to ensure

conflicts of interest are avoided
6.1
Fully
4.7

Process for determining the

qualifications of Board members
6.1

Fully


4.8

Statements of internally
Throughout
developed mission or values,
codes of conduct, and principles
relevant to social, environmental,
and economic performance
Fully
4.9

Procedures for the Board to

oversee the organizations
identification and management
of social, environmental, and
economic performance
Fully


4.10

Process for evaluating the

6.1
Boards performance, particularly
with respect to the organizations
social, environmental, and
economic performance
Fully


4.11

Explanation of whether and how

the precautionary approach or
principle is addressed by the
organization
6.1
Fully
4.12

Externally developed social,

environmental, and economic
charters, principles, and other
initiatives to which the
organization subscribes or
endorses
Throughout
Fully
4.13
Membership of association
6.7
Fully
4.14

List of stakeholder groups

engaged by the organization
7.2
Fully
4.15

Identification and selection of

7.2
stakeholders with whom to engage
Fully
3.1; 6.1

GOVERNANCE, COMMITMENTS, AND ENGAGEMENT (contd)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
4.16

Approaches to stakeholder
engagement
7.1; 7.2
Fully
4.17

Key topics and concerns that

have been raised through
stakeholder engagement
7.2
Fully
GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
Economic
DMA

1.1, 1.4, 2.0, 2.1,

2.2, 3.2, 3.5, 5.1,
6.0, 6.3
Fully
Also see our 2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K.
EC1*

Direct economic value generated

and distributed
Throughout
Fully
Also see our 2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K.
EC2*

Financial implications and other

risks and opportunities for the
organization related to climate
change
4.6; 6.0
Fully
Also see page 12 of our 2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K.
EC3*

Coverage of the organizations

defined benefit plan obligations

Tyson Foods 2009

Annual Report on
Form 10-K
Fully
See pages 66-69 of Tyson Foods 2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K.
EC4*

Significant financial assistance

received from government

GRI Index

Fully

The federal general business credits are the significant financial benefits
received from the government by Tyson Foods. During fiscal years 2008
and 2009, these credits were reflected as benefits of approximately,
$7 million and $13 million, respectively.
EC5

Standard entry level wage

compared to local minimum
wage
3.2
Fully
EC6*

Policy, practices, and proportion

of spending on locally based
suppliers
5.1; 6.3
Fully
EC7*

Procedures for local hiring and

3.2
proportion of senior management
hired from local community
Fully
EC8*

Development and impact of

infrastructure investments and
services
3.5
Fully
EC9

Significant indirect economic

impacts
Not Reported
We currently do not report on this non-core indicator.
ECONOMIC (*=Core Indicator)
ENVIRONMENTAL (*=Core Indicator)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
Environmental
DMA

1.1, 1.4, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2,

4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7,
4.8, 6.1, 6.3, 6.5, 6.8
EN1*

Materials used by weight or

volume

GRI Index

Fully

We currently do not have data supporting this core indicator. We will

evaluate our abilities and various methodologies for collecting and
reporting on this data in the long-term future.
EN2*

Percentage of materials used

that are recycled input materials

GRI Index

Fully


evaluate our abilities and various methodologies for collecting and
reporting on this data in the long-term future.
EN3*

Direct energy consumption by

primary energy source
4.6
Fully
EN4*

Indirect energy consumption by

primary source
4.6
Fully
EN5

Energy saved due to conservation 4.6

and efficiency improvements
Fully
EN6

Initiatives to provide energy

efficient or renewable energy-
based products or services
6.5
Fully
EN7

Initiatives to reduce indirect

energy consumption and
reductions achieved
4.6
Fully
EN8*

Total water withdrawal by source

4.6; GRI Index

Fully

We currently do not have data supporting the by source requirement

of this core indicator. We will evaluate our abilities to collect and report
this data in the near future.
EN9

Water sources significantly

affected by withdrawal of water
Not Reported
EN10

Percentage and total volume of

water recycled and reused
4.6

Fully

Tyson Foods efforts to reduce, reuse, and/or recycle water are

presented as the companys water conservation efforts.
EN11*

Location and size of land owned, GRI Index

leased, managed in, or adjacent

to protected areas and areas of
high biodiversity value outside

protected areas
Fully

After reviewing the regional biodiversity hotspots identified by Conservation

International, Tyson Foods, at this time, has not identified any of its
U.S.-based operations that are in, or adjacent to, legally protected high
biodiversity areas. For additional details, please visit Conservation
International at http://www.conservation.org/Pages/default.aspx.
ENVIRONMENTAL (*=Core Indicator) (contd)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
EN12*

Description of significant impacts GRI Index

if activities, products, and services
on biodiversity in protected areas
and areas of high biodiversity
value outside protected areas
Fully
See comment for EN11
EN13
Habitats protected or restored
Not Applicable
EN14

Strategies, current actions, and

Not Applicable
future plans for managing impacts
on biodiversity
EN15

Number of IUCN Red List species Not Applicable

and national conservation list
species with habitats in areas
affected by operations
EN16*

Total direct and indirect

greenhouse gas emissions by
weight
4.6
Fully
EN17*

Other relevant indirect

greenhouse gas emissions by
weight
4.6
Fully
EN18

Initiatives to reduce greenhouse

gas emissions and reductions
achieved
4.6; 6.5
Fully
EN19*

Emissions of ozone depleting

substances by weight

GRI Index

Fully

Tyson Foods emissions of ozone depleting substances (HCFC

134/134a) is approximately 0.00108 million metric tons per year. This is
less than 0.018 percent of the companys total air emissions.
EN20*

NOx, SOx, and other significant

4.6; GRI Index
air emissions by type and weight

Fully

We currently do not have data supporting the by weight requirement

of this core indicator. We will evaluate our abilities to collect and report
this data in the near future.
EN21*

Total water discharge by quality

and destination

GRI Index

Fully


evaluate our abilities to collect and report water discharge by quality
and destination data in the near future.
EN22*

Total weight of waste by type

and disposal method

4.6; GRI Index

Fully

We currently do not have data supporting the by type and disposal

method requirement of this core indicator. We will evaluate our abilities
to collect and report this data in the near future.
EN23*

Total number and volume of

significant spills
4.6
Fully
ENVIRONMENTAL (*=Core Indicator) (contd)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
EN24

Weight of transported, imported, Not Reported

exported, or treated waste deemed
hazardous under the terms of the
Basel Convention
EN25

Identity, size, protected status,

and biodiversity value of water
bodies and related habitats
significantly affected by the
reporting organizations
discharges of water and runoff
Not Reported
EN26*

Initiatives to mitigate
environmental impacts of
products and services
4.6
Fully
EN27*

Percentage of products sold and 4.6

their packaging materials that are
reclaimed by category
Fully
EN28*

Monetary value of significant fines 4.7

and total number of non-monetary
sanctions for non-compliance
with environmental laws and
regulations
Fully
EN29

Significant environmental impacts Not Reported

of transporting products and other
goods and materials used for the
organizations operations, and
transporting members of the
workforce
EN30

Total environmental protection

expenditures and investments
by type
Extent
Reported
Comments
Not Reported
LABOR PRACTICES (*=Core Indicator)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Labor DMA

1.1, 1.4, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2,

3.3, 4.2, 5.3, 5.4, 6.1
LA1*

Workforce by employment type, 3.2; GRI Index

employment contract, and region

Fully

We report on total number of employees, whom we call Team Members.

Approximately 99 percent of our U.S.- based Team Members serve in
full-time positions.
LABOR PRACTICES (*=Core Indicator) (contd)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
LA2*

Number and rate of employee

turnover by age, group, gender,
and region
3.2; GRI Index

Fully

We report our turnover rate, but do not break this rate down by age,
group, gender, or region. This may be a reporting indicator we further
evaluate for reporting capabilities in the long-term future.
LA3

Benefits provided to full-time

employees
3.2
Fully
LA4*

Percentage of employees covered 3.2

by collective bargaining
agreements
Fully
LA5*

Minimum notice period(s)

regarding significant operational
changes
3.2
Fully
LA6

Percentage of employees
represented in formal joint
management-worker health
and safety committees
3.3
Fully
LA7*

Rates of injury, occupational

diseases, lost days, and
absenteeism, and number of
work-related fatalities
3.3
Fully
LA8*

Education, training, counseling,

3.2; 3.3
prevention, and risk control
programs in place to assist
workforce members, their families,
or community members regarding
serious disease
Fully
LA9

Health and safety topics covered

in formal agreements with trade
unions
3.3
Fully
LA10*

Average hours of training per year

per employee by employee
category

3.1; 3.2; 3.3; 4.2; 6.1

Fully

We maintain extensive training programs related to key business areas

such as food safety, ethics and code of conduct, anti-trust and
corruption; workplace safety, animal welfare, employment practices, and
environmental protection. At this time, we are not capable of tracking
average training hours per employee by category however. This may be
a reporting indicator we further evaluate for reporting capabilities in the
long-term future.
LA11

Programs for skill management

and lifelong learning
3.2; 5.3; 5.4
Fully
LABOR PRACTICES (*=Core Indicator) (contd)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
LA12

Percentage of employees
receiving regular performance
and career development reviews
3.2
Fully
LA13*

Composition of governance
6.1
bodies and breakdown of
employees per category according
to gender, age group, minority
group membership, etc.
Fully
LA14*

Ratio of basic salary of men to

women by employee category
We currently do not report on this core indicator.
GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
Human Rights
DMA

Not Reported
HUMAN RIGHTS (*=Core Indicator)
1.1, 1.4, 3.0, 3.1,

3.2, 3.3
HR1*

Percentage and total number of

GRI Index
significant investment agreements
that include human rights clauses
Fully

Out investment clauses discuss compliance with applicable federal,

state, and local regulations but do not specifically include human
rights clauses.
HR2*

Percentage of significant suppliers

and contractors that have
undergone screening on human
rights

GRI Index

Fully

We currently do not screen our suppliers and contractors on human

rights. We are developing a Supplier Code of Conduct, however, that
will set forth supplier and contractor expectations on key business
issues such as regulatory compliance, employment practices (including
human rights), food safety and quality assurance, workplace health and
safety, animal welfare, and environmental protection. We plan to release
our Supplier Code of Conduct in the near future.
HR3

Total hours of employee training

on policies and procedures
concerning aspects of human
rights
3.1; 3.2; 3.3
Fully
HR4*

Total number of incidents of

discrimination

3.2; GRI Index

Fully

Generally, Tyson Foods does not publicly discuss reported incidents

of discrimination. As noted in Section 3.2 of this report however, we
consider discrimination to be a serious issue and invest considerable
resources to prevent its occurrence. Moreover, we fully investigate each
allegation of discrimination and, if necessary, implement corrective.
Alleged incidents of discrimination resulting in state or federal court
filings are generally a matter of public record. While state and federal
databases may be subject to a subscription or search fee, these
records can typically be accessed within the respective court system
via the Internet.
HUMAN RIGHTS (*=Core Indicator) (contd)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
HR5*

Operations identified in which the 3.2

right to exercise freedom of
association and collective
bargaining may be at significant
risk
Fully
HR6*

Operations identified as having

significant risk for incidents of
child labor
3.2
Fully
HR7*

Operations identified as having

significant risk for incidents of
forced or compulsory labor
3.2
Fully
HR8

Percentage of security personnel Not Reported

trained in the organizations policies
or procedures concerning aspects
of human rights
HR9

Total number of violation incidents 3.2

involving rights of indigenous
people
Fully
GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
Social DMA
SO1*

Nature, scope, and effectiveness 3.5

of any programs and practices
that assess and manage the impact
of operations on communities
Fully
SO2*

Percentage and total number of

business units analyzed for risks
related to corruption
6.1
Fully
SO3*

Percentage of employees trained 6.1

in the organizations anti-corruption
policies and procedures
Fully
SO4*

Actions taken in response to

incidents of corruption
Not Reported
We currently do not report on this core indicator.
SO5*

Public policy positions and

participation in public policy
development and lobbying
6.7; 6.8
Fully
SOCIETY (*=Core Indicator)
SOCIETY (*=Core Indicator) (contd)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
SO6

Total value of financial and in-kind 6.7

contributions to political parties,
politicians, and related institutions
Fully
SO7

Total number of legal actions for

anti-competitive behavior, anti-
trust, and monopoly practices
SO8*

Value of significant fines and total 3.3; 4.7; GRI Index

of non-monetary sanctions for

non-compliance with laws and
regulations

For this indicator, Tyson Foods defines significant as fines equal to or

greater than $500,000 dollars. Two specific fines equal to or greater than
this amount are presented in sections 3.3 and 4.7 of this report. Tyson
Foods, at this time, has not identified any other fines paid during fiscal
years 2008 and 2009 equal to or greater than this amount.
GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
Product
Responsibility
DMA

Not Reported
PRODUCT RESPONSIBILITY (*=Core Indicator)
PR1*

Life cycle stages in which health 5.1; 5.3; 5.4

and safety impacts of products
and services are assessed for
improvement
Fully
PR2

Total number of incidents of non- Not Reported

compliance with regulations and
voluntary codes concerning health
and safety
PR3*

Types of products and service

information required by
procedures
5.2; 5.4
Fully
PR4

Total number of incidents of non-

voluntary codes concerning
product and service information
and labeling
5.1
Fully
PR5

Practices related to customer

satisfaction
5.2; 5.3; 5.4
Fully
PR6*

Programs for adherence to laws, 5.5

standards, and voluntary codes
related to marketing communications
Fully
PRODUCT RESPONSIBILITY (*=Core Indicator) (contd)

GRI
Disclosure
Description
Location
Extent
Reported
Comments
PR7

Total number of incidents of non-

voluntary codes concerning
marketing communications
5.5
Fully
PR8

Total number of substantiated

complaints regarding breaches
of customer privacy and losses
of customer data
Not Reported
PR9*

Value of significant fines for non-

compliance with laws and
regulations concerning the
provision and use of products
and services
GRI Index

Fully

We did not incur any fines for non-compliance with laws and regulations
concerning the provision and use of our products during fiscal years
2008 and 2009.
8.1 Acknowledgements
We thank the following contributors for their help, guidance, and valuable input with the
development of this report: Audit and Compliance; Human Resources; Quality Assurance;
Animal Well-Being; Environmental, Health, and Safety Services; International; Research and
Development; Investor Relations; Purchasing and Sourcing; Legal; and External Relations.
We also wish to extend a special thanks to Tyson Foods External Relations Department for
their design, photography, and editorial assistance in the development and production of
this report and Web site.
8.2 Contacts
For more information about Tyson Foods sustainability efforts
and performance, you may contact us the following ways:

Email: sustainability@tyson.com
Web site: www.tyson.com
Mail/Phone: Kevin J. Igli
SVP and Chief EHS Officer
Tyson Foods, Inc.

2200 Don Tyson Parkway, CP393
(479) 290-4713
Leigh Ann Johnston
EHS Training, Communication, and

Sustainability Manager
Tyson Foods, Inc.

2200 Don Tyson Parkway, CP39
(479) 290-3419

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2009

Sustainability at Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods at a Glance

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 2

1.0 Sustainability at Tyson Foods A Proud Heritage

and pork food products. As our company

Accordingly, we define sustainability in a way

We believe our triple-bottom-line success,

We are committed to building the worlds most

1.1 Tyson Foods Sustainability

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 4

1.2 A Message from our President and CEO

Some of our recent sustainability successes include:

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 5

Health & Safety

We work collaboratively with OSHA in response

productive and quality work not only today, but

the program include ongoing ergonomics

(made up of members of the U.S. Poultry

against the 10-percent reduction goal set in

their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions);

making appropriate reductions and investing in

Sustainability is truly about everything we do

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 8

1.4 The Foundation of Our Company - Our Core Values

We serve as stewards of the animals, land,

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 9

2.0 Tyson Foods at a Glance

Don Tyson assumed the leadership of the

The company changed its name to Tysons

Dons son, John H. Tyson, became chairman

In 2007, Tyson Foods entered into a joint

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 11

2.1 Our Customers and Consumers

The Tyson brand is one of the most recognized

Tyson Foods is the leading protein provider to

In addition to commodity exports, we have

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 12

2.2 A Diversified Business Model

At the plant, the chickens are processed to

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 13

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 14

Tyson Foods acquires hogs through ectly

During fiscal year 2009, with an average weekly

When pigs reach approximately 270 pounds,

2.3 Our Operations

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 17

These rights, benefits, and responsibilities are

Our employees, whom we call Team Members,

We recognize our continued success as an

Additionally, inclusion and valuing diversity are

The right to join together for collective

appropriate, reviews and responds to conduct

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 19

Responding to Ethical Concerns

Additionally, Tyson Foods Human Resources Department offers local

The Tyson Help Line is accessible to

The Tyson Web Line is an Internet-based

2009 Tyson Foods Sustainability Report | 20

3.2 RECOGNIZING AN EXCEPTIONAL WORKFORCE

Our Team Members

provide anonymous channels that can be

and around the world. Many of our facilities and

jointly operate this program. Our participation